White hot & seismotic
by b rated romance
Summary: It's high time for some change in the vampire community; Bella Swan finds herself faced with a difficult mission to accomplish. When faced with a war, will Bella and James bow out or will they burn everything down? RATED VERY MATURE for adult themes.
1. i

**AN**: All right, so most of you reading this right away will know that this is a sequel to _Breathing in Sequence_. But for any newcomers, you should probably go read the completed first story, there's a link in my info! :)

Now, I'm starting this out with some major fluff and I'm not really getting into details about things yet. I'm in the middle of moving, so I'm pretty much updating this just so you guys know I'm not abandoning you :) It'll be a bit 'til we get regular internet, just until we get settled, but we will get it! So don't fret if this isn't updated for a few weeks.

Also, I'm not sure how I'm going to do this story. I may stick with only NarratorPOV because it's easier for me to write that way, but I may not. I'm also not sure if there will be a soundtrack or anything (there is a song for this chapter, though). I'm hoping to make the chapters longer than the last story but I'm not sure how that will go either, haha. I'll figure it out as we go.

So here we goooo :)!

the dress: http://farm3[dot][dot]com/2268/2250060028_66f77f4f55[dot]jpg

the song: http://www[dot]imeem[dot]com/people/-VmzFSp/music/f2TZAQgZ/citizen-cope-sideways/

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**NarratorPOV**

**citizen cope** x _sideways_

There was an overwhelming silence in the small, well decorated room, but outside of it buzzed the noises of the biggest day of her life. Bella stood in front of a large full-length mirror and studied her reflection. Her previously brown hair had lightened dramatically, entirely on it's own, and now was more of a burnt blond. She had thin silver bands that pulled her hair off her face, tiny little diamonds glittered on the two bands as they criss-crossed in her hair; despite her efforts a few wisps of her hair fell along the side of her face. She left them alone and pulled her loose hair back and clipped it into place with a pin, tucking the small white rose behind her right ear.

She turned around slowly, inspecting her entire body as she moved. She was wearing delicate looking off-white lace panties with a matching corset and stockings that came to her mid-thigh. She hadn't put on her heels yet, so she stood with her stockinged feet flat to the hardwood floor. She couldn't believe what was going on around her. The scent of freesia bombarded her senses and soothed her, for which she was grateful.

It was going to be simple, she reminded herself, nothing fantastical or obnoxious. Short and sweet and merciful. She shook out her arms and stretched her fingers. She took a few deep breaths and counted to ten.

She smudged on some lip gloss and dragged a black eyeliner pencil along her eyelids. A quick sweep of mascara and she was done with makeup. Only one more task left before everything began: to get dressed. She walked over to the garment bag hanging on the back of the door and unzipped it. She slid the silk from the hanger and brought it over to her mirror. It was a soft cream color, slightly off-white like her lingerie, and fell elegantly down her figure. She slipped into it, the palms of her hands nervously brushing the material into smoothness along her hips, just beneath the raised lace flower pattern that circled her abdomen. She admired the drop back as she adjusted her hair in the mirror, the curls falling in gentle waves to her hips. The train of the dress was rather short, only trailing her by about two feet, but she preferred it that way.

A roll of nervous excitement came to life in her stomach and she grinned widely at herself, the light coating of gloss on her lips catching the soft white light in the room. She looked down at her left hand, the brief sparkle of her tiny silver diamond engagement ring catching her eye. She held her hand out in front of her, stretching her fingers apart and admiring the simple ring. Bella shut her eyes and smiled happily to herself, the image of her soon-to-be-husband floating through her mind.

"_These feelings won't go away,_

_they've been knocking me sideways._"

Edward walked down the hall between the changing rooms and glanced to the one that hid Bella from him. He desperately wanted to see her, to see the way her dress fell along her curves, to smell the scent of her shampoo. His breath was ragged as he paced the hallway, waiting for the signal that things were starting. Esme really had gone overboard with the preparations, there were delicate white lilies spread out all over the small church and long, twisting strands of ivy hanging from the corners of every room and doorway. It couldn't be more elegant if it had been designed by a god. Edward could smell the freesias everywhere. Carlisle began to make his way down the hall and met Edward's anxious gaze when he looked up.

With a light nod, Carlisle said "it's time, Edward," and turned to make his way down the aisle and through the large wooden doors into the main area of the church. In a frantic whoosh of breath, Edward attempted to push out all of his nerves. It didn't work. Jasper came down the hallway and offered Edward an encouraging smile before he, too, entered the main chamber of the church. Everyone else would be in there by now, all that was left was for him to do as he was supposed to.

There was a light rapping on her changing room door and Bella jumped. Being so uptight and anxious was starting to distract her from everything else. She swallowed hard and twisted a stray lock of hair around her finger.

Now's the time, Bella, she thought, don't chicken out now.

"Bella, it's time. The wedding is starting," Emmett's voice boomed through the thin door and Bella fought not to nibble on her bottom lip. She moved to the door and opened it, her eyes meeting his, and the broad grin on his face brought one of her own to her lips. "Don't worry, Bella, you made the right choice. He's a good man and he loves you, everything will be fine."

She nodded weakly and let him lift her hand to rest on his arm. Together, they began the march down the aisle and through the open doors, following the red velvet carpet. She watched her step closely, terrified of looking up to meet the eyes of her very-soon-to-be husband, and nearly growled at the chuckle that escaped Emmett. At this moment, she hated him.

She took the first step through the threshold of the doorway and the softest keys of a piano started up. A quiet, peaceful melody surrounded her, enveloped her in its promise of contentment and security. She recognized the flow of notes, only James could have composed it. A knot formed in her stomach, twisting and rising through her chest to stop at her throat. She was suddenly panic stricken at the idea that perhaps she wouldn't be able to speak.

Overwhelmed with fear at such a failure, her eyes lifted in search of the only comforting gaze she knew would help. She didn't have to search, straight ahead her sights connected with the piercing emerald gleam she was so desperate for. She hadn't realized she'd made an attempt to run to him until Emmett's grip on her arm tightened and he cleared his throat quietly. The tiniest hint of a smirk teased at James' mouth, and instead of scowling like she wanted to, she found herself returning the subtle gesture. The rest of the walk down the aisle was painfully slow.

Finally, after what seemed like a decade of inching down the velvet carpet, James was within reach and he extended his hand out to her. She took it, placing her fingers into his palm, and smiled warmly at him as his fingers closed around hers and he pulled her closer to him.

The pastor stood silently, aware this his sole role in this ceremony was to pronounce them, his bible clasped to his chest as he watched the unnaturally beautiful couple communicate with nothing but a few glances.

"Bella," James' voice was a hushed whisper, nothing more than a breath of admiration he'd held since she began her walk down the aisle. "My Bella, I am here today to swear myself to you; I only wish there were words to describe everything you are to me and everything I will strive to be for you. When you need someone to encourage you, I want it to be me. When you need a helping hand, I want it to be mine. When you long for the comfort of another, I want you to seek me out. When something troubles you, I will soothe your worries. I promise to be by your side through joy, through sadness." With his free right hand, James gently lifted her chin so he could see her face more clearly. "I vow to be patient with you and the circumstances in our lives. I vow to honor you. I vow not to be boastful of our love, but to keep that which we share between us. I promise to be proud of you, but not proud in love for though I will strive for perfection, I know I can never reach it. I promise not to be quick to anger, but to think before I speak and act. I vow not to keep a record of wrongs, to never shift blame unto you for things neither of us can change. I pledge to be your best friend, your husband, your confidant, your protector, your lover, your soulmate. In faith and in love, I take you to be my wife, to respect and cherish you through good and bad. On this day, I pledge my all to you, Bella Swan."

Reaching down to the table between them and the pastor, James lifted her wedding ring and slid it onto her ring finger, smiling softly at her as she watched.

"James Pylos, I stand before you today a desperate woman. I am here to ask you to receive me, in sickness and in health, for the rest of your days. I swear to stand honorably beside you always, even when the white wings of death scatter us apart. I promise to let the cries of my heart call only to you, to love you unconditionally in all ways; to allow our love to be a moving sea between the shores of our souls, to encourage our love to always be as constant and unchanging as the ocean tide, as the never-ending waves that pour upon the sand, flowing endlessly from the depths of the sea - incalculable and eternal. Your love came softly upon my heart, just as the foam comes softly upon the sand, and just as there will never be a morning without the ocean's flow, so there will never be a day without my love for you. I pledge my heart, my body, my mind, and my soul to you on this, our wedding day. I swear to be dependable through our good days and our bad days, to give you the best of myself and ask of you no more than you can give. I promise to respect you, to cherish you, as the man I am destined for. I vow to openly draw from our combined experience and feelings in our search for truth and meaning. I will strive for harmony through compromise and understanding, through love and devotion, as long as we both shall live. I stand before you with a commitment of adoration and acceptance, of love and desire, in all ways. Always."

Bella imitated James' motions of sliding the ring onto his finger, a feeling of contentment and joy settling itself into her spirit. The shuffling of pages in a book signaled their time to turn and face the pastor, the small act seeming painful and unwanted. James entwined their fingers and held firmly to her hand. The pastor spoke quietly, "Do you, James Pylos, take this woman, Isabella Swan, to be your wife?"

He squeezed her hand lightly and smiled, his voice clear and strong in the small church, "I do."

The pastor looked to Bella and spoke again, "Do you, Isabella Swan, take this man, James Pylos, to be your husband?"

She couldn't help it, the corners of her lips tugged up fiercely into a brilliant grin and she straightened her shoulders. Enunciating every letter carefully, Bella let a delicate "I do" ring from her throat.

"By the powers vested in me by this church, I now pronounce you man and wife." With a light nod at James, the pastor said, "You may kiss your bride."

Without a milisecond of hesitation, James turned and scooped Bella up into his arms, crushing his lips to hers in a frantic, consuming kiss as the Cullens burst into applause. Bella's breath caught in her throat, she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and matched the ferocity of his kiss with everything she had.

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**AN**: :)! reviews are welcome


	2. ii

**A/N:** I just wanted to let everyone know that I make no guarantees about sex scenes for this story. Typically I'm uncomfortable writing them, but who knows if I will feel inclined to do so. Basically, just don't expect it, okay? lol. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. It gives a bit more information without being too boring, I think. I hope. :D Also, it's BPOV this time! As one last thing, I just wanted to welcome the new readers! I know a bunch of people read through Breathing in Sequence while there was the break in updating this, so welcome and enjoy!

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**chapter ii**  
lifehouse x sick cycle carousel

**BPOV**

"Edward! You'd better get downstairs! Bella needs you!" Eight words. It was always those same eight words that Alice would yell from our deck. I hated them. James had tried to warn me, I reminded myself, but I had insisted on coming home. Of course, then the Cullens insisted on joining us. And then Alice insisted on expanding the house to "accommodate" everyone, which I hadn't understood at the time. I mean, it isn't as if anyone sleeps. But then James would kiss that spot on my neck and it would feel like silk against my skin and _then_ I would understand again why individual bedrooms were necessary. I supposed the final opposition I had to all the expansion and remodeling was that it barely felt like _home_, anymore, and that had been the reason I so desperately wanted to be here. The rooms nearly doubled in size and the ceilings went up half a dozen feet and they added a second floor. I mean, really, enough is enough sometimes.

I felt James shift behind me and I groaned; from upstairs in Edward's room, I heard Delia's groan match my own. This routine was getting tedious, but when James said something was necessary, I believed him. No matter how frustrating it got.

I could feel the soft pressure of a kiss on my hair as James' voice rumbled in soft vibrations of air against my ear. "I love you." I couldn't help but smile.

"I'll see you when they're gone?" I asked, leaning forward so he could remove himself from between my back and the lounge chair. I turned the page in the book we had been reading as he got up without leaning back.

"Absolutely. Don't get too far ahead," he grinned down at me, "I want to read it all."  
I winked playfully, "Sure, babe."

The sliding glass door opened and I watched with a smirk as a very unhappy, rumpled, Edward stepped out onto the deck. His hair was a tangled mess and hung over his forehead, his shirt and pants were wrinkled and twisted; and if I was right, Edward was sporting a stiffy. I couldn't help but laugh, and I could hear the sudden change in James' breathing that told me he was fighting the same urge.

He was just better at it than I was.

Edward turned intense butterscotch eyes to my cream ones. He said nothing but his thoughts were loud and clear. '_Shut up._' I smiled dazzlingly up at him. "Go ahead, pumpkin. Say it."

It was an ongoing battle, trying to get everyone to behave normally around me. James said it would get easier but…

"I can't, you know that. It goes against my nature, _now_." Edward spat, the final word sounded nasty in that tone of his.

James scowled and stepped forward once.

_Christ, here we go again_, I thought. But, like Edward to me, I was powerless to stop James' defensive reactions. I was left to wait for the growl, which, surprisingly, never came. I perked a brow curiously at James. I hated when they both blocked me so they could have a silent conversation. Jerks.

Within seconds, both of their postures relaxed. Edward's stiffy was long gone.

Sliding in behind me, Edward kissed the back of my shoulder affectionately. "I'm sorry, Queenie, I didn't mean to be so cranky."

I hated that nickname, but not as much as I hated the others. It was a compromise, so I kept my complaints to myself. I looked up at James as Alice peeked up from the sand. "Two minute warning, guys."

James flashed me a smile and went inside. I leaned back against Edward and picked up my reading. Edward rubbed my arms and nuzzled my neck, the picture of the perfect doting husband, just like he supposedly was. We'd even given him a wedding band to wear.

Ever since we'd taken down the Volturi nine months ago, we'd been hunted down by the most irritating creatures one could imagine.

Paparazzi.

What made this unimaginably frustrating situation worse was how adamant James was that we kept the truth of who I was married to an absolute secret. Even our closest friends, outside of the Cullens, thought I was wedded to Edward. The charade was daunting, but, once again, what James said was necessary…

I heard Delia giggle upstairs and waited for the familiar wave of jealousy. It came, a strict twinge in my chest, then lingered. It wasn't getting any easier. Three months after the wedding and it still wasn't getting easier.

Ah, the wedding. I'd never been quite so happy before. But even that day, even on the happiest day of my life, I'd had to pretend. As soon as James and I were official, he had to use his telepathy in a way that made him sick. Wiping memories was a dirty business and the guilt wracked James for days. But it had to be done.

Immediately after, the pastor performed the ceremony again, only this time it was Edward by my side and a fake marriage license the pastor signed.

But we did all of it. To keep us safe against something only James understood. Vague possible threats that neither Edward, nor I, could really make out in the fog of James' thoughts. Not that James didn't try to help us understand, he'd opened himself up entirely. He'd gone as far as to let Edward feed from him. But even then, it was all too undefined for either of us. We weren't used to the kind of knowledge James was used to.

I yawned widely, bored with the book now that my mind had wandered so far off of it.

"Sixty seconds," Alice mumbled from her spot in the sunlight. The twinge in my chest grew, twisting and frothing and growing until I felt as if my entire ribcage would swell until I burst. This was it, I'd finally had enough. I was done playing their games, done conforming to a shape that I simply was not.

I was fucking through with the paparazzi and their underground vampire trash-zines that were risking my life. Fucking done. I didn't want to keep my real wedding pictures hidden in the library between copies of _La Fontana _and _the Odyssey_. I didn't want to look around my house and see pictures of Edward and I. I didn't want to hear Delia giggle with James when I wanted him with me.

And I wanted a fucking honeymoon. I wanted to be with _**my **__husband_.

I threw the book down angrily and let my face fall into my palms. Breathe in, breathe out.

My temper had gotten much, much worse.

No one spoke. Edward froze behind me and I heard everyone, less one, in the house stop breathing all at once. It happened this way a lot. When my temper got out of hand, everyone knew. It was like a crack of lightning in the middle of a dark, still night; silent but you always knew it was there. You always sensed the danger. The air thickened with power leaking from my skin. Sometimes I would joke that I leaked gasoline.

Sometimes they wondered if I really did. So did I.

Just as my breathing was starting to become more of a pant, I heard James in my head. '_If you want to leave, we'll leave._'

_I do,_ I thought, _I really do_.

'_Can you pretend until –_'

_No_.

'_Then you know what to do._' I loved him, I really fucking did. No one else _got_ me this way. He was the only one with the power to argue with me and it never even occurred to him to do so. That, that was love. That was sacrifice. That was devotion. He must have been listening still because he added, '_I'll get things done in here and I'll meet you outside as soon as I can. Be careful, Iz. Please._'

"Alice, inside. Now." Edward roared down to his sister, leaping from the chair he shared with me as he spoke and darted into the house. She was up and on his tail instantly.

A few of the modifications to the house were things like tinted, shatter-proof glass and fire-proof siding re-enforced by brick and steel _just in case_.

Just in case there were days like today.

The flames seemed to come from nowhere, rising right from the sand and shooting out in two directions. I imagined looking at the house from above and I pulled the two ends of the fire together, wrapping them in a burning circle around the house without closing the gap. I waited for James to give me the word, counting the seconds before I could close us in. Four minutes, I waited. Finally, I heard James' clearance, '_She's out._' I closed the ring and started over, starting closer to the house this time.

Two rings, in case someone got brave. I fed the inner ring more power, feeling its heat increase and crackle only a few yards away. The warmth danced on my skin like loose silk that had been in the sun all day. I stood up and rested my hands on the railing of the deck, just watching the flames lick at the air.

We had ten minutes, tops, before the fire trucks came. While we had privacy, there was only so much fire and smoke that the neighbors could ignore or dismiss. From a distance, this would look like the entire house was incinerating.

The sliding door slid open and I felt the vibrations of steps on the wood of the deck. Arms wrapped around my shoulders and James settled his chin against my collar bone. "Everyone's ready."  
"Liar," I said, mostly amused. He couldn't possibly tell me Alice was prepared.  
"She's making concessions." He said, his voice firm. They'd argued.  
He'd won.  
"What are the concessions?"  
"More than half."  
I turned in his arms to face him, absolutely stunned at his response. More than _half_? He'd gotten Alice to relinquish _more than half_? "That's impossible!"  
James' eyes shifted down from watching the flames to look into mine and suddenly I understood how he'd managed it. Behind his beauty, behind his fury, behind his affection or devotion, behind his control and his stature, behind his regal command, _James was more powerful than any of us._ And that power moved like a predator behind his eyes, if I was honest, it was what made him so goddamn sexy all the time. A constant vicious edge that lurked behind every glance and smirk and scowl is _what made him_. It was what the rest of him was built upon. I had to look away before I tore my own blouse off and dug my nails into his skin. He emitted the softest chuckle and I couldn't help but grin at the floor.

'_When we get to New Zealand, Iz. As soon as we get there,_' he thought and I silently agreed. '_Right now, we must go. Alice should be returning from the post office. Perhaps you should allow her inside; you know how terrified she is of the flames._'

With the fire, I searched for Alice along the perimeter I created. There were dozens of paparazzi, just like she'd predicted, but Alice was on the far side – entirely out of their sight. I could smell her through the smoke. I parted the flames, giving her a wide berth, and I could feel her dash through the opening as the flames reached out toward her to lick at her skin. I never allowed them to get close; when she was through, I closed the opening. Three seconds later, the sliding door opened again and, cautiously, our make-shift family stepped out onto the porch. The women were terrified; it was plain on their faces as it usually was. Also as expected, the men stood tall and composed, the symbol of the unafraid. Except they were faking. There wasn't a soul, outside of James and I, that didn't fear the fire more than they'd feared anything in their lives.

But that was how it was supposed to be. I regretted that they feared anything about me, but it seemed it had to be that way.

"Are you ready, Queenie?" Carlisle asked. It never seemed appropriate coming from him, as if the very word somehow took away his dignity. I kept silent about it.  
"Yes. Everyone ready?" I stepped out of James' arms and scanned the small crowd in front of me. No one moved, no one blinked. Most eyes were focused entirely on the flames; only Edward and Carlisle looked back at me. They nodded. I continued speaking, "You will run directly into the water, is this understood? Keep as low as you can to avoid being seen. Then swim, swim until we reach land. Follow Edward, he knows the way. All right?"

I received half-hearted nods but that was enough. I parted the flames again, wider this time by at least double what I'd allowed for Alice, and stepped aside so Edward could lead them through. James and I were the last to go, in case anything went wrong and we had to help them; but there was no need for emergency action. We darted through the opening, running between the walls of flame with our bodies hunched over and our feet pounding against the hot, charred sand. We dove into the water and swam.

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**AN:** reviews are, of course, more than welcome and encouraged. :) thank you guys for reading!


	3. iii

**AN:** Be warned. Also, trying something new with the lyrics. They shouldn't be so imposing anymore, but I can still feel like they're helping me make a point.

**chapter iii**  
porcelain and the tramps x my leftovers  
paramore x emergency  
paramore x let the flames begin  
the Vincent black shadow x don't make me so mad

**RosaliePOV**

Emmett had gotten the call. We'd fought, of course. I didn't want to put our lives on hold for _her_, but he'd grabbed his keys and walked out the front door. I'd had to leap into the Jeep as he sped out of the driveway in reverse.

Because her husband said _she_ had called a meeting. It was hard enough getting him to leave their house the first time; I wasn't looking forward to attempting to do so again. We'd fought for weeks.

I just didn't understand what had changed. Sure, Emmett had always been a little fond of Bella, but now he was like her fucking lapdog. It was disgusting and I wouldn't accept it. Emmett was _my_ husband; she'd already infiltrated my entire family. She couldn't have everything. Who was she to demand it?

"She doesn't demand anything," Emmett would say. "I feel drawn to her. _I can't help it, Rose; it's as if she calls to me somehow._"

Well fuck that.

As soon as the bitch was out of the water, it was on.

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**JamesPOV**

The swim wasn't as long as everyone expected, which was good. I was getting tired of hearing Alice whine in her head. They were just clothes, I couldn't understand why she wasn't appreciative that I'd let her mail as much of them as I did. To mail more would have taken too goddamn long; it was a matter of priorities. How some silk and lace mattered more than Bella was beyond me.

Bella stepped out of the water immediately after me, glowing with some ethereal light that I couldn't place. She absorbed the sunlight, it radiated from her as if she was a sun all on her own. Her new blond hair was darkened slightly by the water and her white blouse was see-through. She wore a black bra beneath it. I cleared my throat and turned away as she shook her hair out and it fell in large, gentle rings around her face. She sighed quietly to herself as she stepped up to stand next to me. '_I'd kill for a smoke right now,_' she mused inwardly. I lifted up the back of my shirt and pulled out the bulky make-shift package I'd made before we left. There was a reason I always demanded we get the ziploc bags that were able to have the air vacuumed out of them. They were also water-proof.

I unzipped the bag and looked inside, peering between our wedding photos and a few paper documents until I found her pack of cigarettes hiding in the bottom. I pulled them out and handed her a cigarette. She beamed up at me, a secret grin that she seemed to give only to me, and lit the cigarette with a snap of her fingers. Her grin told me all I needed to know; she appreciated me in ways she couldn't even explain. She glanced up at me from the corner of her eye and thought, '_So what else did you sneak out of the house?_'

I smirked and shrugged, '_Important documents, the wedding photos..._'

'_Ours?_' She was suspicious I would insist on pretending more, suspicious I wanted to hang up more pictures of she and Edward.

'_Ours. I left the others to burn._'

I had less than half a second to react to her as she leaped on me and wrapped her legs around me. With a small giggle, she planted her lips on mine firmly as I wrapped my arms around her waist. She didn't have to say she was grateful. After a moment, she pulled back and brushed the tip of her nose against mine, it was her quiet way of saying she loved me. I leaned down and kissed her collar-bone as she dropped to her feet. She went back to smoking her cigarette.

I heard the roar of Emmett's Jeep before I could see it, but within seconds it was skidding to a sudden stop nearby and Emmett was lunging from the driver's seat. He darted across the rocky beach and scooped Bella up in his arms with a triumphant holler. "Queenie!" He proceeded to spin her around as he walked a few steps away.

Bella tapped his head lightly and glanced down at the ground, asking him politely if he could perhaps put her down now. He did as requested and grabbed her hand happily. He'd only been gone from her side for a month, but it had clearly been too long for him. It was strange to see such a hulking man as Emmett become such a needy creature at the hands of a small woman. Though, in all fairness, to some extent we all were. Even Jasper, with his extreme distrust of the situation, found himself aching to be in the room with her.

It was a constant struggle for all of us, but worst of all, Bella had to fight with it. It certainly wasn't as if she adored being the center of attention, after all. There was only so much constant company one girl could take, but she'd been handling it like royalty. She'd only ever lost her temper once, and it had been absolutely warranted. While Emmett was desperate to be near her, Delia had the hardest time of us all. Not only had she needed to be in the room with Bella at all times, but she'd needed to be touching her. When we had tried to separate them at first, Delia had screamed in agony, one long, constant wail, for hours until Bella caved and went to her side. There was something viciously devoted to Bella inside of Delia, and it had taken more than six months to wean her off of being at Bella's side constantly. She was worse than an infant with a pacifier, and much stronger.

The earthquakes were part of the reason Bella and I had allowed for the Cullens to renovate the entire house instead of just adding on. Delia's outbursts were seismotic, threatening to both the living and the dead.

porcelain and the tramps x my leftovers  
"_I've been waiting to smack you around. You should have stayed home, you should have known better._"

"Rosalie, no!"

It was a scream, not a command, a desperate plea for sanity that had erupted from Edward's mouth. Instantly, I spun to face the direction of the Jeep, my entire body rigid with anticipation. I no sooner turned than there was a flash of color and silky blond hair that flew right passed me.

"IZZIE!" I felt the nickname tear from my throat in a violent outburst as I lunged after Rose to protect Bella. But I was too late, Rose was too close. It didn't even occur to me to grab her telekinetically. I watched, frozen in terror over the thought of Bella being injured.

Injured because I had been slacking off. I'd assumed safety in this group and I'd been wrong. I would not make the same mistake again.

Emmett crashed into a nearby cliff, shoved out of the way of the impact by Bella, who was clearly more alert than I was. The remainder of Bella's cigarette lay on a stone a few inches away from her feet, spirals of the smoke still dancing upwards. In the same instant that Rosalie was to make contact, Bella's fist swung up from below and connected with Rosalie's chin. Blood sprayed from her mouth as she was flung backwards by at least sixteen yards. She hit the ground with a heavy thud, but it didn't stop her, she was on her feet and glowering at Bella within a second.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, Isabella Swan?" Rose spat, her blood continuing to pour freely. She appeared to be missing a number of teeth. Her normally pretty face was distorted with rage, the red pit of her mouth gushing liquid faster than she could spit it out.

"Pylos," Bella corrected.

"Rose, why don't you just calm down?" Jasper was stepping towards her cautiously, his hand outstretched as if to soothe a beast.

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**BellaPOV**

"Don't, Jasper," it was a command. I'd never commanded Jasper, but I was now. And instantly, he froze; his expression clearly displaying the amazement at the affect two simple words had on him. I hadn't even used a normal speaking voice, I'd practically whispered.

The truth was I could end this issue here and now. A few simple words and Rose would be on her knees, weeping and kissing my feet. But that wasn't how I wanted to do this; I didn't want to command people to like me. I didn't want to have to command anyone, but some things you can't change. I straightened my shoulders and settled my legs into a more stable position. If Rosalie wanted a fight, she could have one.

I wouldn't even incinerate her, honest. Despite her attempts to seduce James, to seduce Edward, to turn everyone against me, I wouldn't even burn her alive. It hadn't been easy adjusting to this, it wasn't even over; but like hell was she going to take it away now. And I was better than a lick of fire; I had more dignity than that.

Now was the time to prove it.

I supposed now was also the time to tell her everything, let her get it all out of her system. But how does one really approach such blatant honesty?

"Answer me!" Rose was screaming now, her voice cracking with the force she put behind it.  
"There is no answer to that question, Rosalie." I was calm, everything about me radiated that. I didn't want to be here, but it didn't matter. I'd learned that.  
"Where do you get off taking possession of what isn't yours, you fucking slut! I'm done letting you have everything." Rose stalked toward me, one step at a time, and James' hand twitched the closer she got. Watching Rose attempt to intimidate me was my last priority, I was watching the group; I needed to make sure no one interrupted this.  
"Don't touch her, James." I couldn't command him, no matter how hard I tried, so I didn't try. I just requested. He said nothing, thought nothing, but the twitching stopped. Rosalie continued to come toward me.  
"I hate you, Isabella. I want you dead."

I shifted my gaze to her, feeling the rush of power in my veins as I met her eyes. She flinched but continued to come closer. I found myself impressed at her determination; she really must hate me.

"Because your husband tried to be with me or because your attempts to steal my husband failed you?" I suppose honesty didn't have to be so vicious, but it was tit for tat now and she needed to get hurt. She needed to be knocked down a few pegs. I could do that. "Tell me, Rose, how do my leftovers taste?"

There was a sickening shriek from Rose's mouth just before she lunged at Emmett. Emmett tossed me a wide-eyed, panic-stricken look that told me everything I needed to know; Rose was off the handle. She would probably kill him, and his actions hadn't been his fault. He'd been confused; they were all confused. Every problem had a solution, if you were clever enough. '_James._'

His hand lifted from his side, palm facing out in Rosalie's direction, and curled his fingers in. With a strong yank backward, Rose was pulled through the air to fall on her back at James' feet. She scowled up at him but his eyes never left me. I could smell the hate rolling off of her in slow, deliberate waves; a sick, rotting aroma that made my stomach churn.

"I'm terribly sorry, Rosalie, but Emmett is under my protection. Harming him would only incur my vengeance, so I do not suggest it." _This has to be diplomatic_, I reminded myself. _Push her too much and you may have to kill her_. "I can't have you tearing his head off. However, you're welcome to attempt to tear mine off." I smirked at her as she attempted to wipe the blood from her chin. She was healing now; if I looked closely I could see new teeth pushing up through still-bleeding gums. "Come on, precious. Come and get me."

She wanted a bad guy; I could be a bad guy. I could antagonize her; encourage her anger until she exhausted herself out trying to pummel me. I could do all of this. I just wouldn't be her punching bag; I would be hitting back. I didn't care how many teeth she lost in the process. It might even do her some good to get that untouched face of hers bruised and bloodied a little bit. Sometimes you have to be shown you're not invincible.

She rose to her feet and walked straight towards me.

* * *

**NarratorPOV**

Rosalie wasn't going for surprise, anymore, she was going for blood. She _would_ rip Bella's head off; she _would_ stand up for herself and her family, even if they didn't realize they needed defending. This girl had upset their lives twice, now. Rose wasn't putting up with any more. The rage she felt swelling inside of her had only been amplified to learn that Emmett, her Emmett, had fallen victim to this _woman_. This creature standing in front of her had too much power, someone needed to remind her that not everyone was afraid. Fire, pheromones, it didn't matter.

paramore x emergency  
"_I think we have an emergency._ _'cause I've seen love die way too many times when it deserved to be alive._"

Isabella Swan was going down.

Bella ducked out of the way of the first right hook Rose swung at her, but she hadn't quite expected the following left hook aimed at her jaw and it connected with a bone-shattering crunch as Bella stumbled back one, two, three feet. She righted herself and spit a wad of blood onto the sand and rock beneath her feet.

Bella cracked her neck, her eyes never leaving Rose, and shook off the blow. Mid-shake, she pulled her fist back and went for a straight-on punch to Rose's nose and felt the crumpling of cartilage beneath her knuckles. More blood poured down Rose's face and she let out a weak whimper at the sudden, blinding pain.

But Bella didn't stop; she swung again with her left fist and collided with Rose's ribcage. She pulled back and did it again. Again, again, again, until she felt ribs snap. This was not going to be hair pulling and screaming. This was not going to be slapping and shin-kicking.

One or both of them would end up in the basement of the back-up house with Carlisle patching them back up.

Rose lifted her left hand from her face, coated in blood and running down her arm, and grabbed Bella's hair fiercely. She yanked her head back and swung at her face with her right hand, immediately regretting the intake of breath as the pain seared through her chest. The swing connected somewhere along a cheekbone, but it hadn't been hard enough, Rose knew because there had been no crunching or snapping, and anything less than a broken bone wouldn't stun either of them.

Bella wrapped a hand around Rose's throat and squeezed tightly, narrowing her eyes, including her swelling left one, and growled low in her throat. Her nails began pinching skin and Rose panicked, terrified Bella would rip her throat out, and released her hair. Keeping her grip on Rose's throat, Bella tugged hard until Rose's body bent downward and Bella lifted her knee.

With a sick, wet smack, Rose's face connected with Bella's kneecap and Rose fell backward.

Bella could hear James and Edward screaming in her head, both of them begging her to stop before she got hurt, but she ignored them and waited for Rose to get up. She spit more blood onto the ground. Esme was cradling a sobbing Delia a few yards away, while Carlisle focused intently on every movement either of the girls made.

paramore x let the flames begin  
"_I give it all my oxygen, so let the flames begin. Oh, Glory_."

Somewhere behind James, Alice gasped and fell to her knees, her eyes wide and unfocused.

The sound was an alarm in Bella's mind and she looked up at Alice, distracted for the briefest of seconds. But it had been long enough. Edward yelled violently, an indiscernible noise, and made a dash for the girls, James picking up on the warning and following suit. Rose stood up, yanking the long blade from its holster beneath her pant leg, and shoved it hard directly beneath Bella's ribcage. The knife slid in smooth, not having to swerve around bone, and the clean gasp escaping Bella's lips was silenced by the most immaculate pain she had ever experienced.

The puncturing of one's heart, Bella now understood, was disturbingly brilliant. Like a spark in the middle of a dark night, the pain overtook her senses and left her breathless and unaware of her surroundings. Bella looked passed Rose's torso, meeting James' eyes as he streamlined his way to her, and she extended her hand out desperately. _James. _His name was right there, hanging on the edge of her tongue but she couldn't push it out of her mouth. She felt her knees buckle and the stunning impact of stone and sand on her kneecaps. Somewhere in a distant part of her brain, it registered that the knife had only entered her heart by two inches and the hilt was pressed firmly against her skin. There was the rust flavor of blood in the back of her throat and she realized it wasn't from the punch to the jaw she'd received. She was choking up blood, and she didn't imagine that was a good thing.

James got to Bella first, collapsing to his knees by her side and letting her fall against his chest. He could feel shock settling in but he ignored it and moved swiftly, yanking the blade from Bella's chest and stabbing it into the ground beside him. He adjusted Bella against him and pressed a hand against her face. "Iz! Iz, are you all right?" He could hear faint gasps for breath, for control, but she didn't seem to be making any headway on either. Half-words and images floated through his mind and he found himself unbearably grateful for them, just to know she was still conscious.

Rivulets of blood were leaking from the corners of her mouth and his heart sank in his stomach. She wasn't able to swallow. That realization eliminated one of the two ways he could _possibly_ save her. Without thinking, James bit into Bella's neck. He retracted his fangs and moved down an inch and bit again. He made a small trail of bite marks that curled from her neck, over her collar bone, down her right breast and ended a few inches above the knife wound. With each bite, James pumped more and more of his venom into her system. Suddenly the weight of Bella's body against him registered. The fading gasps escaping her mouth seemed louder than anything he had ever heard. The silence in her mind rang in his ears like a vicious melody.

Iz was dying in his arms.

He looked up and met Edward's desperate gaze. He could feel the rest of the Cullens in a half-circle around him but he ignored them. There was a choking blackness that filled his veins, moving like billowing smoke and swelling his body into a rising storm. Someone had taken her from him; someone had caught him off guard and in that singular instance someone had taken her. Pulled her away from him when he'd just gotten her back.

His rage had no direction, it overpowered him like a tidal wave and he could feel himself suffocating on it. There was a strange snapping of awareness in him and he watched as his arms shifted to rest Bella's body in Edward's arms. He could hear the shock in Edward's head but it was a weak whisper of a distant life and he brushed it off. James rose to his feet, his clothing wet from the ocean and heavy with the thickness of Bella's spilled blood. He turned on his heel without warning and grabbed Rosalie's throat with his right hand. He lifted her off the ground and met her eyes, watched her expression as the realization that she would likely die dawned on her. Mortality was a difficult concept for the immortal. He tightened his grip and felt the indents his fingers were making in her neck begin to break skin.

the Vincent black shadow x don't make me so mad  
"_if I wasn't so deep in the bad side of me, if my bones were alive and not ready for that slow decay… don't make me so mad._"

And then something changed dramatically. That same fog that had spread through his veins seemed to rise, lift and redistribute itself over his skin. There was an unnerving gray tone that seeped up Rosalie's neck and it didn't take long for James to realize that the decaying mist that overwhelmed him was the reason.

Rose gasped beneath his grip, a desperate cry escaping her lips. There was yelling somewhere around him but he dismissed it. A distorted image of Bella watermarked his vision, it broke his heart that the last thing he would remember her doing was reaching out to him as she collapsed. He felt his heart twist inside of his chest, contorting in the misery that was settling into his bones. He glowered at Rosalie as she kicked her legs and scratched at his hand. The discoloration had progressed and was inching up her face. Her butterscotch eyes were dulling to an empty, cardboard color.

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**AN**: So I was hoping to surprise everyone with an update so soon after the last, did it work? Also, how do you feel about the lyrics in this? I know some people said they used to skip over them or find them irritating, so I'm attempting to compromise. I use the lyrics because they help me make a point, so I was wondering how this worked? Which POV do you guys prefer? What do you think is going to happen! So many questions and only one chapter (Also, horray that this chapter was almost as long as the first and second chapters combined!) ;) Anyway, I just wanted to say I'm so glad you're all reading and thank you so much for the reviews so far. :D So yeah, I'm done rambling. Reviews/PMs are love!


	4. iv

**AN**: So here's the real surprise, haha. :) Two updates today! Enjoy.  
**

* * *

  
chapter iv**  
carolina liar x I'm not over  
carolina liar x done stealin'  
carolina liar x better alone

**NarratorPOV**

Strong hands clasped onto James' arms and he heard screaming; angry hollers directed at him that he continued to shrug off. One voice encouraged him; in the depths of his awareness James could hear the echo of Edward's enraged thoughts: '_Kill her!_' More hands grabbed him, some were tugging and others were prying at his fingers around Rose's throat. It was strange for him to be able to see and understand the actions while being so absolutely disconnected from the world in which they were taking place. Even stranger, he realized, _no one was able to move him_. Not an inch. Three sets of hands yanked and strained against him but none of it mattered. Emmett's strength would get him nowhere, James realized. Foreign sweeps of calm encompassed him but the wrenching in his chest was stronger and Jasper's flood of peace was promptly smothered.

carolina liar x I'm not over  
"_what would you do, do you know? I once had a grip on everything, it feels better to let go._"

He had a vice grip on the woman's neck and nothing short of a miracle would convince him to let go.

Before anyone got desperate enough to rip him to pieces before he was finished, James focused on his telekinesis. There was a sudden rush of air and the hands that had been attempting to stop him were gone. Rose's eyes were focusing and un-focusing as his fingers dug into her throat further. The decay had spread down her neck and was beginning to descend over her chest.

Then everything changed.

From five feet behind him, he could hear it. None of the other voices that had been clear and drastically louder had been so distinctive. It only happened once. Bella's voice, distorted by gulps of blood she hadn't swallowed yet. She choked out his name, and that was all.

James sank his fingers in the rest of the way and met Rose's gaze a final time as his nails dragged against bone. She was terrified, her mind frantic as she stared into the sheer mercilessness that filled his eyes; silently, James tore her throat out in one powerful motion. Her cry stopped short. He dropped the handful of flesh and muscle and tendons onto the stones and sand and spun around to face Bella as Rose's body crumpled to the ground.

carolina liar x done stealin'  
"_I can't get away and you would never leave me._"

His knees hit the beach and his arms scrambled forward to grasp onto her. Edward shifted and helped Bella sit up enough that James could sweep her against his chest. He kissed her head constantly, dragging his hand up and down her arm as he clung to her. Incoherently, he murmured to her; repeating her name and a hundred apologies into her ear. He praised God's he'd never acknowledged, in a thousand languages, as he rocked them gently. In his mind he went over the impossibility of it all. It had just been a knife wound, the thought haunted him. He tried not to think about it, tried not to admit that it was something he didn't understand. He didn't want to lose touch with the reality in which he held her against him, and allowing a question to simmer until his gift finally answered it was one step in the direction of being pulled away from her. If the answer was difficult, he could lose connection with what was in front of him for hours, lost in the paradox of a murky response until he could finally sort it out.

But there was no stopping it, his gift was already emerging from his subconscious and taking over his mind. Distantly, he could feel her hair against his lips and smell the ocean on her skin, but it wasn't close enough anymore. He was beginning to feel strained, like he was being taken from her. Anxiety welled up in his chest as he rode the mental wave of understanding.

Her power came with consequences. It all really made quite a lot of sense. Bella controlled fire, fire was supposed to destroy vampires. Bella was a vampire who controlled fire. By that standard, she was more invincible than the others. But nothing could be perfect, everything had to have a way to be destroyed.

Bella's heart was her automatic destruct button. A wound to the heart, though not beating, to any vampire, was lethal if he or she did not feed right away; but it was a simple solution. None coughed up blood the way Bella did. Somehow, Bella was simply more susceptible to heart wounds than the rest of the vampire world. One for the other, tit for tat. Untouchable by fire, destructible by steel.

Delia crawled closer, stopping at Bella's legs and lifting a pleading gaze to James. Jasper watched closely, transfixed by the natural way Delia seemed to ask permission. He memorized the quiet way James met Delia's eyes and gave the faintest nod, allowing Delia to be near to Bella when he had turned everyone else away. Emmett scooted closer to James, never quiet touching Bella, but staring at her so intently that he may as well have been touching her. It was too much for Jasper, and he stood and marched off. He stopped about a hundred yards away and crossed his arms, staring out at the ocean waves. Alice followed him, already having been turned down by James twice, and looped a tiny arm through Jasper's crossed ones.

"Are you okay?" Her voice was soft, solemn. He debated his answer.  
"No."  
"Want to talk about it?"  
He paused, considering carefully again. "Yes." He waited again, piecing his thoughts together. Alice said nothing. "I want to hate the situation. But then I see…" He sighed, frustrated. Words were failing him.  
"You see what, Jasper?" Alice looked up at him from the corner of her eye, attempting not to appear too curious. She was trying not to pry.  
"I see how natural it is, I guess. It's difficult to understand because that's not how I've ever seen someone take power. Every other leader, every other monarchy or government, has to _work_ for it. It always ends in massacres, always death and torture and bribery." He shook his head, trying to clear away the half-thoughts that were beginning to clutter his mind. "It's always by force, but not here. It seems so different."  
"It is different."  
"It won't be for long. Everyone has a weakness, and eventually Bella will be corrupted too. It breaks my heart to know that after watching such sincerity with her."  
"You're wrong. I'm watching this all very carefully and there is no sign of a single weakness susceptible to corruption. She's better than you're giving her credit for, Jasper."  
"I don't bet against you, Alice, but we'll just have to see about this one."

Once James finally allowed Carlisle to get close enough to study the wounds, it became a battle of getting James to release her slightly in order to do so. Carlisle eventually resigned himself to working around James, conceding that he was in shock and there was nothing any of them could do to convince him to let her go.

* * *

"Just take it easy for the next couple of days, Bella. You got lucky the knife was too short to make it much farther in, so let's not risk anything." Carlisle finished wrapping her wound and lifted a robe over her shoulders. He offered her a nod and turned away, stepping over to start work on Rose. His hands moved swiftly as he cleaned the wound. He was forgoing trying to re-attach her throat, saying that she was already healing too quickly for it to take, so he was attempting to monitor her for lack of anything better to do for her. Bella watched in silence for hours as Rosalie grew a new throat. She focused on the unnatural way that the tendons and muscles rebuilt themselves, lines of red and pink stretching layer after layer. The way her skin knitted itself over the exposed bone and muscle and ligaments. Everything was still bleeding. There were hours left until she was even halfway through healing and Bella was already sick of watching. Hearing her stir, Carlisle said over his shoulder, "If you're going upstairs, you can tell everyone that Rose can have visitors now, if they wish to come see her."

She dropped to her feet from the exam table and wrapped the robe around her body tightly. She crossed the room silently. She felt unstable, her steps shaky and her breathing hard. She attempted to reason out the consequences of today and it left her feeling impossibly more tired. Certainly loyalties had been challenged, loyalties that hadn't even had time to be properly formed. She couldn't blame James, no matter what Rose insisted. Rose had attacked her, with no hesitation for a killing blow, and she had been punished. Strangely, Bella felt no bitterness towards her, though she did want to. It wasn't every day that someone stabbed you in the heart. Rose had been a vampire long enough to know _exactly_ what kind of impact that sort of wound would have, it was hard to wrap her head around the fact that Rose had fully intended on killing her.

Killing.

Rosalie, who was lying on the other exam table with Carlisle dunking a stained sponge into sanitary water and dabbing at the forming mass. She would heal in a few days, but it kept her silent for a while and forced Carlisle to give her blood via a plastic bag and tubing because she couldn't swallow it herself. James never once trembled on his position that Rose had gotten a fair punishment, that she would take care to consider consequences in the future. Rosalie raged in her head, screaming silently about the injustice that was being done to her and how soon it would be a regret they all shared. Bella felt James was absolutely justified - despite not having any ill will towards Rose. Bella dropped her gaze from Rose and left the room, climbing the stairs out of the basement and stepping into the kitchen of the back-up house. She could hear quiet voices in the living room. Following them, she walked across the kitchen and through the dining room until she crossed the threshold into the living room. All discussion froze and the only person looking at her was James. He extended his hand and she made her way over to him, taking it and letting him pull her into his lap. Emmett, Alice, Jasper, Esme, Delia and Edward were seated all around her, watching the floor.

What could she say to make this right to them? What would she have to do?

"Bella, I just want to say I'm sorry. I didn't know she was going to -" Emmett's voice choked off as he attempted to stifle a dry sob that was clearly winning. He dropped his face into his hands and cried, heaving breaths and tearless gasps into his hands until he was able to stop for a moment. "God, I had no idea." Esme reached over and patted his shoulder affectionately, her expression somber and tired. She hushed him as only a mother could, and shifted until she was beside him on the couch to let him rest his head on her shoulder.

She looked up at Bella and frowned heavily, "We're all sorry, Bella. We want you to know that."

_Is everyone serious?_ Bella thought.  
'_Why wouldn't we be?_' Edward shifted in his chair across the room, lifting his arm and resting it on Delia's shoulders so she could lean against him.  
Bella attempted not to turn her eyes to him, not wanting the rest of the Cullens to know they were communicating telepathically. It seemed unfair, even underhanded, and she didn't want to hurt their feelings. She could feel the dreadful sadness that filled James' thoughts. _No one could have done anything, Edward; I'm the one who wanted to face her._ To Esme, she said, "Please don't apologize, it isn't necessary. From anyone."

'_We should have been more alert, we should have been able to realize she had a weapon on her that she intended to use,_' James thought, resting his forehead against the back of her shoulder. The comforting rumble of James' voice against her back waited for a pause in the room before speaking. "I've never been so petrified." Each word was heavy with the slow speech of the lump in his throat, and Bella believed him. In all his time alive, James had never once been as scared as he was just hours ago. He kissed her spine softly. "Christ, Iz, I'm so sorry."

From her right, Emmett began his arid weeping again. Bella rose from James' lap, despite his desperate attempt to cling to her, and she walked to Emmett. She kneeled before him, flinching at the motion of her abdomen muscles along the knife wound, until he looked at her. He shook his head and made gestures for her to get up but she took his hands in hers and brought them to touch her face. She was careful to keep the command out of her voice. "Emmett, hush. Go to your wife."

carolina liar x better alone  
"_Can't quite believe all of this and what it means. You've become so bitter you think you're better alone, for the sake of your sanity. It won't hurt a soul if you just learn to breathe, again_."

"Absolutely not." Emmett's voice was strong, despite his sobs. He scraped a huge hand over his eyes to control himself. Beneath thick fingers and long lashes, his eyes were the color of burning embers. He was thirsty, Bella made a mental note to have everyone feed later on. He cleared his throat and looked at the room. "She is not my wife anymore."

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**AN:** !!! i know, right? Reviews are love!!


	5. v

**AN:** I'm just going to say that I know the months don't make any sense. I haven't been keeping any track at all, so please forgive me on that. I'll try to start now, but I don't have the time or energy or willpower to go through all of BiS to see when I started it and how the months progressed, etc. If anyone is bored and would like to make a time line of it all for me that would be amazing, but yeah. Other than that, I'm just going to say I'll start keeping track from here on out.

* * *

**NarratorPOV**

The empty silence filled the room. Emmett was leaving Rose? It seemed a concept for a fantasy realm, not something that _actually_ happened in the real world. Bella briefly wondered if everything she had experienced up until now was just a particularly long dream and she would wake up in Forks in her bed with her purple quilt and Charlie sleeping just down the hall.

One hell of a dream, that would be.

Bella shook herself out of it. She glanced over to James, who seemed to be in a state of stoic acceptance. She sent out a probing thought, blocking of Edward even though it would surely piss him off. It usually did, at least when he was in the room. '_What are we supposed to do about this? He can't leave her because of me._'

James lifted emerald eyes to hers and gave her a curious look as if to say, 'and why not?' She frowned at him, not bothering to attempt to hide it from everyone else. '_Because they have been together for, what, ninety years? Come on, James, it's ridiculous for them to split because she tried to kill me. He should be on her side._'

Now it was James' turn to frown, and he did so blatantly, even shaking his head. He cleared his throat and said to Emmett, "Why don't you just try a separation for now? You never know what could happen, and it will eat Bella alive if she thinks you're making a mistake over her."

Bella wanted to scowl but it was all entirely true, and she supposed it should have been said anyway. She turned her attention back to Emmett, gripping his big hands in her small ones, and kissed his forehead affectionately. "Come on, Em, don't give up on her now."

Emmett's expression became hard and cold and he stood from the couch, Bella's hands falling from his as he did so. He stepped to the side and made to go upstairs. Stopping at the foot of the staircase, he spoke over his shoulder, "Rosalie is no longer my wife. I've made my decision, and there's no changing it. Perhaps in time something can be worked out and I won't have the desire to burn her myself, but until then, my decision stands."

The room remained silent for a long moment after Emmett went upstairs. It seemed no one really knew how to handle the situation.

Or maybe they were waiting on Bella to react.

Delia rose from her spot beside Edward and seated herself where Emmett had been, offering Bella a meek smile as she lifted her discarded hands. "Turn and sit, Queenie. I will braid your hair."

Bella let out a heavy sigh and smiled back, doing as she was requested and seating herself comfortably on the floor between Delia's legs. She leaned back and let Delia's tiny fingers run through her hair, parting it and twisting the chunks into braids. It was a soothing experience for Bella, one of the biggest reasons she enjoyed her long hair so much. The comforting strokes of fingers against her scalp and shifting her hair lulled her into a near-sleep state. As close as vampires could get, she supposed.

Eventually, Alice turned on the television and they all watched in silence. Hours passed like minutes, no one moving or speaking except to chuckle at a joke on the screen or to change the channel. Carlisle came up the stairs around three in the morning, more than ten hours after Bella had come upstairs.

One glance at his tired eyes and Bella realized she had forgotten about the feeding everyone was clearly in need of. She sat upright and shut the television off. "Come on, guys, we've got to eat."

From the statues in the soft seats came groans of displeasure. Everyone seemed so depressed. Bella ran through possibilities in her mind, ways to cheer everyone up but almost nothing came to her.

Almost.

Bella stood from her spot on the floor and felt Delia's fingertips slide down her arm, a silent protest of her departure. Turning to face Delia, Bella smirked inwardly at her plan. It was hard to resist what she was about to offer them, and the euphoria of it would cheer them all up. Without a doubt.

"Hey, Jamie, would you mind turning on some music?" She offered him a bright smile and he nodded, pieces of his thoughts clearly displaying his amusement at her idea. He stood and made his way over to the computer across the room and turned on something soothing.

Bella moved slowly, straddling Delia's legs as Delia's eyes widened with slow realizations of what may possibly be happening. Enormous burgundy eyes lifted to meet Bella's and she trailed a finger down the side of Delia's face. The thing about Delia was that she was absolutely stunning. It took nothing more than a few touches for someone to fall madly into lust with her, and she did it without any pheramones. There was just something about the feel of her skin and the way her eyes captivated, something about the taste of her lips and the smell of her hair. Bella leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to the base of Delia's neck as Delia's breath hiccuped in her throat. Biting down and taking a few calm sips, Bella found herself desperate to be closer to Delia, to feel the press of her skin against her own. Bella pulled back, aware of the path those thoughts would inevitably lead her down.

Sometimes Delia could be intoxicating, even to Bella, and it had happened more than once that Edward or James had to intervene before either of the girls became too unclothed.

She could feel the soft brush of Delia's nose against her jawline and waited for the prick of her teeth. It came within seconds and the rush of having blood taken from her washed over Bella with a brisk chill that awake every nerve ending in her body. Bella could _feel_ every thought that passed through Delia's mind as if it were swimming in her veins, words and images that had no real meaning filling her up until she felt she might explode from them. It didn't take long for Delia to get her fill and when she pulled back, running her tongue over her sensitive fangs, she made a weak moaning noise and let her head fall back onto the couch. Bella breathed heavily as the pulsing consciousness in her veins eased enough that she could focus on sending out the quiet pheramones that would call everyone to her.

It was the fluttery touch of Alice's hand that moved across Bella's shoulder blades next. Alice's mouth was warm against the back of Bella's throat, comforting but not stirring the way Delia's was. Alice drank slowly, as she always did, enjoying the entire scenario in sloth-like motions. Shivers passed through Bella in mercilessly languid rolls. Alice's knees buckled beneath her and she let herself rest against Delia's leg as she, too, tongued her sensitive teeth.

The pads of thicker, masculine fingers touched Bella's arm and the musky scent of cool skin and the blood beneath overwhelmed Bella. _This_ was new. There was an awkward pause between them until Bella shifted off of Delia's lap and stood to face the man behind her. Raising her eyes to meet his, Bella gave him a gentle, welcoming smile. She could feel the nervousness radiating from him. Stretching up slightly, Bella immitated her actions with Delia to soothe the terror-filled creature before her. Everyone seemed to be more comfortable feeding from her if she fed first. She only drew in a few long, calming drinks before Jasper slid down to the floor on his knees.

It was difficult to feed or be fed from while standing. Of everyone she had shared this with, only James had been able to remain standing.

Once she pulled back, Jasper didn't hesitate for an instant. He leaned forward and bit her neck, moving higher up, nearer to her jawline, and drank contentedly until he was satiated. Alice opened her arms to him and he gratefully let his head rest in her lap as she stroked his hair. A moment of peace filled the room and they all smirked at each other, Alice beaming brightly at Bella. A barrier had been broken between Bella and Jasper, and the changes that would take place from this moment on couldn't be predicted by anyone other than Alice.

It seemed she had no desire to share the predictions.

In the time they had all spent together, there were only three of the Cullens that hadn't allowed themselves to feed from Bella. Perhaps Carlisle was inspired by Jasper's allowance of himself, or perhaps he had made the decision before Jasper's demonstration. It really didn't matter at all, Bella thought as Carlisle came and knelt in front of her. His face was solemn, serious in a contemplative way she only saw when he was mulling over forms from the hospital. He met her eyes and opened his mouth to speak but seemed to think better of it. His fingers twisted each other in his lap. Bella chuckled lightly inwardly and moved her hair from the left side of her neck. His eyes darted to the exposed flesh and back to her own. He seemed slightly panicked, so Bella curled her index finger towards her chest to beckon him closer. She was starting to feel a little tired.

Once she fed from Carlisle, it took only a few more minutes to silently convince him it would be okay for him to do the same. Jasper sent calming waves at him half-heartedly, but no one really blamed him for his inability to focus enough to actually help the situation. Alice continued to smile widely at everyone, looking more like a drugged pixie than a vampire. The subconscious thoughts filled Bella once again, as they had with Jasper and Alice and Delia, as Carlisle fed. He kept his hands a respectful distance from her, always the kind doctor unwilling to even toe boundary lines.

When Carlisle pulled back from her throat and leaned against a nearby wall, looking rather dazed, Bella realized just how fatigued she felt. Immediately James was at her side, lifting her up into his arms with an arm beneath her knees and an arm wrapped around her back. He sat himself down and nestled her against his lap.

Esme chuckled from her spot on the couch beside Delia, "It's hard to feed an entire family, isn't it, Bella?"

It seemed to be the right thing to say at the moment as everyone in the room broke out into subdued laughter.

'_You should feed, Iz. I'll take care of Esme and Edward, Emmett too if he wants to come down here again._'

'_Are you sure? I don't want you to feel like you have to, I'm just so exhausted._'

James kissed her temple softly, '_I'm absolutely sure. You first, though._'

* * *

"Alice, it's ten o'clock in the morning. Must we leave _now_? I'm certain the clothes won't be swiped up in the first hour of the store being open. Most of them probably aren't even open yet." Bella whined from the safety of James' lap. They had all fed and now, of course, Alice was chipper and more than her usual amount of bossy. She was insisting that they go shopping for new clothes, citing her unfathomable loss in California. '_Unfathomable, my ass,_' Bella mused.

"They are open, trust me, Queenie. I know these things."

With a few more unsuccessful grumbles, Bella finally hoisted herself from James' lap and straightened her blouse. Alice, being the kind person she knew herself to be, had not only brought Bella some fresh clothes to wear instead of that robe, but she'd even dressed Bella herself. Mostly because Bella had refused to move because she was comfortable nuzzled against James.

"Bella, you're always comfortable nuzzled against James," Alice had replied. "It shouldn't keep you from doing other things. Even things that don't have to do with James."

Both Bella and James had frozen at the last statement, James' body rigid with tension and Bella's mind left speechless at the very thought. Absurd, they had both responded, that simply wasn't possible. Inwardly, they both briefly remembered how it felt the _first_ time they had been separated after the Volturi were dead. '_Oh, God, the pain,_' Bella had whimpered mentally. All she remembered was the debilitating agony that had filled her entire body.

"No, I'll be joining you." James had said. And it had been settled.

James gave them distance as they shopped, he had no interest in listening to the girly chatter that Alice was so interested in having. He followed behind them by a few yards, inconspicuously enjoying a strawberry smoothie, as they went from shop to shop. He seated himself on a bench outside of, yet another, high-end clothing store that Alice was dragging Bella into. He baby-sat the delivery cart they had talked the customer service people into allowing Alice to use for the trillions of purchases she surely would be making.

Alice and Bella meandered through the shop, lifting up blouses and skirts as they went and pressing them against themselves to check the way the color looked on their skin. "So I think Jasper is going to propose, soon." Alice said, a light grin dancing on her lips.

"You _think_? Oh, Alice! It's unfair to cheat by keeping tabs on the future," Bella chastised warmly. She set down the salmon colored sweater she was holding, giving in to the need to gossip that had overwhelmed her. "When?"

"I'm not sure, I think I saw snow."

"Oh, then it shouldn't be too far away!"

The conversation progressed as they moved from display to display. Bella found a few blouses she liked and a couple pairs of pants but, overall, she didn't find the selection to have much to offer. She slid her own shirt back on and stepped out of the changing room to find Alice sniffing the air curiously. She opened her mouth to ask what Alice was noticing but it took only a single whiff of the air before Bella _knew_.

She spun around quickly, her mind reeling in two polar opposite directions. On one hand, she wasn't bitter over his secrets anymore, but on the other... On the other she somehow knew that it would not be a pleasant meeting.

And then she saw him. The impossibly tall, thick figure from across the room seemed to also be discretely sniffing the air. Their eyes met and Bella froze as Alice gripped her arm. The brown eyes across the room watched her carefully, narrowing into thin, suspicious lines over the span of the few seconds they remained staring at each other.

Jacob Black marched over to where Bella was shielding Alice, his eyes displaying all the rage that he was fighting so hard to keep under control. A few yards away, he stopped and seethed, his breath coming in deliberate, regulated pants. "You're supposed to be fucking dead, Isabella Swan."

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**AN:** Reviews are loveeee :)


	6. vi

**AN:** I'm so sorry it's taken so long and that this one is rather short, but it's the best i can do at the moment okay? :) i'm still around and still trying, though! This chapter is just to show you guys that.

Chapter 006

**NarratorPOV**

A chill swept through the clothing store and Bella nearly shivered. There was such intensity in Jacob's hatred that she could taste it in the air, a sensory input of pheromones that she wasn't used to. Waves of it washed over her entire body, an electric force that was beginning to cripple her nerve-endings and brainwaves. The violet walls around her were fading to a blinding whiteness. "You taste terrible, Jake." Her voice was scratchy in her throat, even to her own ears it sounded far-away and weak. Alice's fingers were digging into her elbow firmly; somewhere in the back of Bella's mind it registered that Alice was probably holding Bella _up_ single-handedly.

Outside of the store, James stood to his feet, bumping the smoothie he had sitting on the arm of the bench and ignoring it as it went crashing to the floor and sprayed the remainder of its contents in a sticky mess on the linoleum. He slid his wedding ring off his finger and stuffed it safely into his pocket; in the long run it would do no one any good for him to overlook the small things. He breezed his way into the store, maneuvering around the displays and the few patrons that were meandering around them. He came to a stop behind Jacob and opened his mouth to make his presence known just as Bella glanced at him and he felt the swell of her consciousness rise in his mind. And then it came crashing down. James had little more than half a second to move around Jacob and catch Bella as she lost consciousness, the full weight of her small body hitting his chest with a limp thud. He shot Alice a sharp look as he heard her pre-scream intake of breath and she snapped her mouth closed instantly, choosing the more approved of route of action and allowing him to put Bella in her arms.

Turning to face Jacob, his blood now boiling in his veins and his breathing coming in short, forced gulps, he shifted his heated gaze to meet Jake's. Jake crossed his arms in front of his chest and scowled down at James, taller by about three inches and using it to his full advantage as a way of intimidating the new arrival. It didn't work. "Outside, my friend. Let us not involve any innocent bystanders in your eminent demise."

Without speaking, he turned and slipped out of the store, Alice carrying Bella and hot on his heels. Jacob followed, though he wasn't quite sure what it was that compelled him to do so. James shoved open an Emergency door across the walkway between the stores and headed out into the bright sunshine of mid-day. He turned around, making a mental note of where Alice stopped and set Bella down, and watched the door as it swung closed. Jake never came through it. James waited, the seconds ticking my with weighted drags, until he eventually yanked the door open again and scanned the area. No sign of the wolf, even his smell had disippated. A low growl escaping his throat, he slammed the door hard enough that it caved in slightly and he spun to face Alice. "Go get your stuff, we're going home."

He scooped Bella up in his arms and kissed her forehead sadly. She wasn't in any real danger, he could feel the tingling of her consciousness on the edges of his awareness and he gave it a little caress with his own. As Alice ran inside to fetch her shopping bags, James continued to gently encourage Bella's awareness until she came awake in his arms with a start. Gasping for breath as if she'd been suffocating, she met his eyes and threw her arms around his neck. "Sh, Iz, it's all right. I've got you; we're going home." He paused to kiss her neck affectionately. "We've got some things to discuss."

* * *

**AN**: again, sorry it's short! i hope to be updating soon :) there's a bit of an issue with my friend's laptop so i have to make the trip to the library every time i want to upload a chapter and i can't use my gigstick so i have to write it here and i only have an hour. so this is what i could do lol.


	7. vii

**A/N:** So i know it's been ages, and i'm so sorry. i'm really pushing to get net at the house within the next two weeks, so let's all keep our fingers crossed that my roommates cooperate, yeah? also, this is shorter than the first few chapters, but twice as long as the last one i posted, so i'm trying :) i hope you all enjoy this one.

* * *

**NarratorPOV**

James slammed the truck door, the sheer viciousness of his motions shaking the entire cab, and stuffed the key into the ignition. Bella glanced up into the rearview mirror at Alice, nibbling on her lower lip as if it would save her life. James started the engine and Alice's eyes darted around the area as if she were expecting someone to come jumping out in front of them, her fingernails bouncing on her knee as she hummed a constant little desperate noise.

"So we don't know where he went?" Bella asked aloud, bringing Alice into the conversation she and James had been having telepathically. Alice shook her head and James said nothing as he put the truck in reverse and backed out of their parking space. He drove precisely, every slight turn of the wheel meticulously calculated, with his foot heavy on the gas pedal. The truck tore out of the parking lot and zipped onto the main road. Alice tugged her seatbelt across her chest but froze when James spoke.

"Neither of you wear a seatbelt." James' voice had taken on the heavy, indisputable tone that seeped in only when he was utterly serious. Subconsciously the urgency of James' words made sense to Bella, so much so that she nearly allowed herself to will Alice into silent submission; she managed to refrain, however, and she resigned herself to simply hoping carefully. She did toss a look into the rearview mirror, though; to be sure Alice was paying attention as Bella unclasped her own seatbelt.

"What? Why? Getting cut up as I fly through a windshield is a little too close to getting cut up into pieces, if you want my opinion. I'd rather not." Alice's finger tapping became more frantic.

One steadying breath in, James counted to five and released the air from his lungs. He raised his eyes slowly to meet Alice's in the mirror, the deep, foreign blackness that had been frequently covering up the natural emerald green of his eyes once again making an appearance. "Look, Alice, I'm sorry that you feel vulnerable right now but deciding not to trust me as a way of lashing out is just foolish. So if you'd kindly like to just shut up and do as I suggest, I can get back to getting us all home alive, yeah?" His words were caustic, venomous, and his attention was already back on the road as he jerked the wheel to the right suddenly and sped by a line of waiting cars. He drove through the red light, and the subsequent one, his black eyes darting to his left every few seconds.

From the backseat, Bella heard the soft click of Alice's seatbelt locking into place around her lap. She wanted to turn around and yank the stupid seatbelt right out, she wanted to yell at Alice for being so fucking prideful and unreasonable. But she did nothing, she didn't even breathe; she looked out of her window at the passing view. The ocean waves broke against the rocky, uneven shore beneath the side of the cliff that paralleled the road beneath their wheels. Bella shut her eyes and waited.

The crunching of metal surprised only Alice, and a short, startled yelp sounded from between her lips as the back left of the truck, two feet away from her until now, caved in and compacted around her. Sharp edges and spikes of the metal frame jabbed into her skin and embedded into her muscles, locking her in place for fear of ripping off any of her limbs. The force of the collision threw Bella forward, her arms blocking her face instinctually, and sent her blasting through the windshield to land a few yards away from the truck with a heavy smack onto wet leaves. James growled in pain as his seat pressed the left side of his body firmly between his door and the steering wheel, his back trapped against the compressing remains of the left side of his truck. He began to wonder if he shouldn't have left his seatbelt on as the sudden understanding that perhaps hanging from a root on the side of the cliff over jagged, pointed rocks might have been less painful than having his arm so compressed that he was sure all of the bones were broken. He tried to move his arm and felt the chunks of metal puncture his shoulder blade.

A vehicle door opened and closed out of sight. James counted the sounds of steps, hoping to decipher who it was by how far he or she had to walk; all he could smell was gasoline and the abysmal smell of blood rusting metal. Four, five, six. It would be Jacob, James knew, walking from the vehicle the werewolf had used to T-bone theirs. Jacob walked away from the two trucks, following the line of gasoline to its starting point. He flicked a match and dropped it, burning still, once he'd lit his cigarette. Bella pulled herself up onto the front hood of the truck, then up onto the top of the cab, until she was sitting comfortably with her legs hanging down in front of the spider-webbed glass of the rear window. She smiled at Jacob across the beginning inferno.

Alice's ear-splitting scream ripped through the air as soon as she caught a sniff of the ignited gasoline. Bella inhaled happily, taking in greedy gulps of the burning air. She met Jacob's eyes across the black smoke as she dropped from her seat to the truck bed and followed the path over the second truck. Breaking the eye contact, she leaped gracefully down to the pavement.

James shifted his body until he could get some grounding for his grip, and pushed with his right arm until the collapsed metal that pressed against the back of his seat was pushed away enough that he could pull his body out from its entrapment. The sound of slick metal sliding from flesh made him cringe. The seconds moved passed with unyielding sluggishness, the pain in his shoulder was subsiding with each fraction of an inch that he was able to remove from the wound. Once freed, he shifted his body from the tight box that used to be his drivers side, and rolled his injured shoulder until he could feel the skin stitching itself back together. He'd learned from the mistakes of others to never let a vampire's wound heal without giving it the proper re-acquaintance with its natural purpose. He'd seen vampires with crippled limbs because they simply didn't think to provide the healing appendage with some quick physical therapy. Satisfied that his arm would heal perfectly, he moved to begin tearing pieces of metal out of his path to Alice. The snarky little pixie would do well to listen to him in the future, he thought. In his minds eye he watched, through Bella's eyes, the events unfolding outside of the truck; he had to strain his hearing to be able to tune into any sounds other than Alice's piercing wails.

Bella walked slowly toward Jacob, her steps parallel with the trail of fire; with each pace, the flames she passed dropped low to the ground and burned out silently. As with in the shopping mall, Bella could taste the rolls of hate that exploded in an ongoing series from Jacob's body, a pungent aroma with a harsh, dark chocolate-like aftertaste. Focusing on it too harshly, she knew, would interrupt her synaptic communications, almost a self-fulfilling fantasy, if she'd ever experienced one; and Bella wasn't one to repeat mistakes. Bella inhaled joyously, over and over again, allowing the unconscious power of such an emotion to fill her body with weightlessness; she could feel her muscles stretching and elongating, her bones harden and lighten at the same time, her mind expanding as if no longer restricted by the space in her skull.

Hate was a powerful thing.

A few yards away, sudden fatigue overwhelmed Jacob with a stabbing dynamism; he could feel his consciousness slipping through his fingers like sand. He struggled to will himself into red alert, almost able to smell the scent of Bella's skin over the smoke. He had to get a grip on himself; he roared inwardly, he had to remain standing. He had to finish what he'd started. The rage he'd felt so clearly, the bitter hatred and ghostly memory of a pained loss, was hard to recollect. It felt just out of his reach, and getting farther every second. Electric shocks snapped and crackled in the air, dancing with the uplifted sparks from the remaining fire. With a single thought, one gusting exhale, Bella shoved the darkly tempting force from her body. The sounds of a schism opening beneath her feet had onlookers immediately falling to their knees to cover their heads. Jacob stood tall, staring into the fierce, white eyes that never left his. He realized, through the heavy, molasses-like trudge of his muddled thoughts that he was going to die. His eyelids were heavy with exhaustion, his bones and his tendons ached as if he'd injured them all and had then been left to suffer the consuming cold of an Alaskan winter.

Bella stopped walking where his body started, their clothing a mere quarter inch away from touching, and looked up into his dulling eyes. She pulled her arm back and made sure her knuckles collided with his nose hard enough that the cartilage snapped beneath the force. He hollered out, blood bursting from his broken nose as she, in one silky motion, took the cigarette from his mouth. She bit down on the filter, now soaked through with his blood, and flashed him a snide grin as she took a long, wet drag. He could feel himself sinking to his knees in front of her and all the nasty self-depreciating remarks he howled in his head did nothing to will him back to his feet. Humiliation, like a tidal wave of nausea, crashed over him. Bella crouched so she could meet his eyes and he could sense the tiniest glimmer of strength returning to him. For what felt like hours, Jacob spun helplessly in the cold creaminess of her eyes. Unexpectedly, the back of her hand collided with his cheek and the sting of it made his eyes water.

"Wake up," she said, as if she alone possessed the power to command him, and walked away. Staring after her, he was almost certain that his returning awareness and strength were because she had given them back.

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**A/N**: reviews give me motivation to walk the mile to check my email, and subsequently, write another chapter and walk the mile to post it, okay? love!


	8. viii

It had been around three when Edward strolled into the kitchen and kissed Bella's cheek. Moving smoothlyonto a stool beside her, he nodded at James across the island. "What's for dinner?"

James swiped a pile of chopped walnuts from the cutting board and into a bowl. "Stuffed chicken breast." Edward made a mocking gag sound and Bella couldn't help the chuckle that burst from her lips. Advancing on to cubing up his homemade french bread, James smirked at Edward and added, "Not bloody enough for you, Dracula?"

Edward swiped a handful of cranberries and teasingly munched on them dramatically, eliciting a playful scowl from James. "Anyway, Delia and I were thinking of watching some stupid romantic comedy but if you voted for _Blades of Glory_ with me then we could out-vote Delia. Wha'dya say, Iz, you -" The heavy thunk of James' chef's knife splitting the cutting board in half interrupted Edward. Before he could open his mouth to question the strange happening, James rose his eyes and the blackness in them caused Edward to snap his mouth shut.

"If you ever call her by that name again, Fuckward, I _will _rip your heart out."

Edward swallowed the lump in his throat and nodded, his ears practically ringing with the electric anger filling the air. "Right. Won't happen again, then." And just like that, it was over. As quickly as the storm filled the room, it dispersed and James replaced his cutting board and went back to his chopping. Snatching up a fresh loaf of bread, Edward began to help with prepping dinner. The silence was awkward, but it seemed to only be uncomfortable for Edward and Bella. James moved around the kitchen fluidly, completing one task and moving to the next without even looking up at them. Once he began humming along with the stereo, Bella excused herself and sought out Delia. Perhaps a movie would be a good way to relax.

--

Bella rinsed out the fifteen empty bottles of moonshine and set them in the recycling container by the front door. Dinner the night before had been pleasant, despite her apprehension for nearly everything around James recently. The success of the evening was due, largely, to the moonshine they had shared. It was easy to keep James jovial when he was drunk, it was a small window of opportunity that Bella had discovered and had used to her advantage ever since. If James noticed her excessive prompts for everyone to drink, he made no remark. She was grateful for the small graces, the little things that went under his tempers' radar. The soft padding of feet behind her, however, was not one of those small graces. At least not for her. It was was beginning to really get under her skin.

"Alice, what is it already? What's the use of you knowing things if you won't tell anyone about them?"

Alice frowned and crossed her arms. "Because if I tell you, you won't do it. And you have to do it, otherwise this is the end of all of us."

Sighing, Bella rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly. "Fine, Alice. But let me be, at least. Go with Jasper and Carlisle, I'm sure they need some entertainment on their trip."

Alice remained for a moment longer, studying Bella's face carefully, before she shrugged and bounced off down the hallway. Turning to the window, Bella watched the peacefulness of the backyard for a long moment, losing herself in the slow movements of the clouds and the calm wind in the trees. A pair of arms made their way around her waist and she jumped, startled. James chuckled warmly into the back of her neck and ran his nose down the side of her neck. "Morning, Iz."

"Hey, you. I didn't hear you."

"You rarely do." His jovial grin surprised her, and she smiled easily back at him.

"So where is everybody today?"

Twisting herself around to face him, she attempted to put on a serious expression. "They are all out on errands. No one will even be back tonight." Bella reached up to wrap her arms around his neck and leaned forward. Meeting his eyes beneath her eyelashes, she slowly pressed her lips to his and was immediately welcomed into his mouth. One hand gripped her hips more rigidly and the other lifted to run up her neck and into her hair.

--

The wall that Bella's back was firmly against was beginning to dent beneath the force of her hip and shoulder bones. The straining grip around her throat was reminiscent of a thick, bristled rope secured inflexibly enough that she wasn't getting in much air. One of her large curls had gotten trapped beneath his fingers when he originally started choking her, but compared to the unbelievable grip he had on her neck and the strange, far-away pain of slowly-crushing bones, the hair being pulled no longer seemed like a big concern.

She had been screaming his name and some form of the question "what the fuck are you doing" for at least two minutes, now; it was getting to the point where more grandiose action had to be taken. She could feel streaks of pain, dull and far-away but growing as they traveled. All she could think about was Alice's remark, over and over in her head. _And you have to do it_. She knew she would, when it came down to the wire and she had no choice, but a small part of her wished she could just back down. Gracefully bow out of being the one to make these calls. How simple things could be, then. But the simplicity would end there; for everyone else, things wouldn't be so simple, and that was what mattered. It was an adjustment that she was having trouble making; the needs of the many now needed to outweigh the needs of the few. The throbbing had spread down her neck and was starting to reach to cross over the balls of her shoulders. "Let fucking go, already!"

Nothing felt right about her motions; not necessarily different, just wrong somehow. She could feel herself sliding into a different role; moving comfortably to fit as if slipping her hand into a glove. She met James' eyes over the long, solid stretch of his arm and the black holes of his eyes left her mind dizzy; it took most of her power of will just to remember what it was she needed to do. "James, enough." She let three, four, five precious seconds elapse until she caught a faint, but unnerving, scent rising from her skin; like the foul odor of cancer, she could smell the decaying rot that was dripping through and clogging her veins. It took little to no focus to bring the embers in her chest to life, a few whispers of thought and she could feel her spine heating up beneath her skin. The warmth turned to fever, turned to calidity, turned to fervid; and the smell of seared flesh filled her nostrils. The holler that escaped James' throat was sudden and heartbreaking, but his hand was off her throat and she let herself slide down sit on the carpet.


	9. ix

shiny toy guns x frozen oceans

**BPOV**

I caught glimpses of the glistening, swollen red flesh of his palm as he shoved shirts and jeans into a military green duffel bag. Panic was starting to well up in my chest as I watched him pack a bag; my terror-stricken words seemed to fall on deaf ears. He wouldn't even look at me. What frightened me even more was that he hadn't said a thing, not a whimper or a groan or a huff. I reached out to touch his shoulder, unthinking, and he stepped out of reach, still not looking at me.

"James, where are you going? Come on, just talk to me. Please?" He moved around me fluidly, keeping at least a foot away, and flung open the closet door. Behind him, the dresser drawers hung open and disrupted, with shirts and pants and stockings hanging out. "I don't understand where you're going! Would you just stop? Just for a minute." I was speaking without realizing it, my thoughts leaking out through desperate lips. It was hard for me to believe that fifteen minutes ago he had been lifting my shirt over my head and kissing my collar bone. My mind raced frantically, unsuccessfully trying to piece together the mess of events.

He walked across the room and into the bathroom, I could hear him yanking open the small closet and rooting through the towels and hair products. I moved to stand in the doorway, sure that now he couldn't get passed me without having to acknowledge me, and waited.

It took less than fifty seconds for him to throw the rest of his necessities into his bag and zip it up; he turned to leave the bathroom and his eyes landed on me for the first time since he had let go of my neck. I kept my arms slack at my sides, my expression open and hopeful; all traces of anger or hurt carefully kept from his sight. The last thing I needed was for him to think I was only trying to fight with him.

He carefully studied the empty spaces between me and the sides of the door frame before turning to look at the window. It occurred to me then that I might not be able to get him to stay. He opened the window and threw his duffel bag through it quickly. "James! This is ridiculous! Please, just talk to me. If you want to leave then, fine; but at least talk to me."

His hands frozen on the window sill, he turned his head slightly so i could see his face. He kept his eyes affixed to the linoleum. He was listening. The sudden change took me off guard and I opened my mouth only to find that no words came out right away. He was listening and now I was speechless. I blabbed the first thing that came to mind. "Alice said something would happen."

"I know."

I said, "Where are you going?"

"I have to go."

"But where?"

"Bella, just let me go," he said, his voice a grating whisper.

And I say, "I can't. What am I supposed to do without you?" I could feel my throat closing, my voice cracking. The threat of his departure finally settling into my brain as a plausible event.

"I can't stay."

"Why not? We can figure this out." Pleading doesn't become me, but I can't seem to stop myself.

"Why can't you just trust me?" He'd raised his tone, not quite a yell but certainly inching towards one.

"Because you're leaving."

For a moment, we were both silent. Finally he says, "Bella, I'm leaving whether we continue this talk or not; there's nothing to be done to stop it."

"So we're done, then? Just like that? You're not coming back?" Even I can't pretend my voice isn't choked with the heartbreak in my chest.

"I have to go." He doesn't wait for me to respond. Hoisting himself up with his arms, he pushes himself out of the window after his duffel bag and I'm left to fall to my knees on the bathroom floor. The sound of my kneecaps shattering upon impact seems insignificant as the lump in my throat erupts as a desperate, tearless scream.

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**AN:** I tried first person again, just to see if it made it easier to write. It did. Sorry about the random narrative changes and all that, I'm experimenting. I hope it's not too confusing. I know the last few chapters have been short, but it's the only way I can really write lately. If I try to make them longer they drag and end up sucking a lot more than they do now. I've been suffering from an epic bout of writers block. Reviews are encouraging, but I'm not counting on getting any. If you're confused by the plot, don't worry. Things will make sense eventually. I just hate bombarding a chapter with a lot of explanations; it bores me to do that and I know it sucks for you, but it's either this way or I get too bored and don't write. I'm not really sure how else to go about it.


	10. x

the white stripes x apple blossom

**EPOV**

Unlocking the front door, I shoved it open and let Delia walk inside. The smell of her honeysuckle shampoo filled my nostrils and I leaned in to nuzzle her neck as I dropped my keys in the dish by the door. I pulled her against me and playfully nibbled at her earlobe. Chuckling at me, she turned to look me in the eyes and say something. She didn't get the chance, however, as we simultaneously realized that there was a disturbing sound coming from the master bedroom.

Immediately, the out-of-place events of our day all began to fall into place. Halfway through our date, while we sat in the movie theatre munching popcorn, we'd both experienced spikes in our anxiety levels. Not ten minutes later, Delia cried out over some sudden, seemingly cause-less, pain in her knees. We both moved toward the bedroom at the same instant, all joviality fleeing our minds. I was the faster one, of course, and my strides quickly out-paced Delia. I rushed into the room and my eyes landed on Bella's crumpled body. I choked back the fear that rose into my throat and went to my knees beside her; she was sobbing, weakly, and her body quaked violently as she struggled for breath. "Delia, go check on Rose. I can't hear her," I yelled behind me. I heard Delia's soft steps change direction and the sound of the basement door opening.

I gently moved Bella's hair from her face and rubbed my thumb on her cheek. "Bells, it's just me." I was growing uncomfortable with her position, and the sick, unnatural bumps on her kneecaps. "I'm going to pick you up, okay?" I didn't expect a response, somewhere in the recesses of my mind I was checking off the stymptoms catatonia. Rigid pose, ignorance of external stimuli, seeming loss of motor skills. I slid my arms beneath her and lifted, and despite the change in what was supporting her, her body didn't shift or relax. She remained, firmly, in exactly the same position. I was nearly certain now.

I carried her close to my chest, moving slowly so I didn't startle her, and seated myself on the couch with her in my lap. I turned her stiff body so that the side of her face was resting on my chest and I rocked her. The disquieting sound of her weezing left me wanting to make a more soothing noise; the only one that came to mind was the lullaby I'd written for her. The danger of James walking in and hearing it, the risk of Delia becoming jealous, the chance that Bella would take it as me trying to be with her, were all risks I was willing to take. Her condition not only unsettled me, but left me furious at whomever left her this way, and I was desperate to soothe both her and myself.

I heard Delia's steps on the staircase leading up from the basement and I turned to look at the door as she entered the room. I knew what she would say before she spoke.

"I looked everywhere, Edward. Rose is gone."

I said, "Call Alice and Carlisle, if you would. And now that I think of it, Emmett too." I waited for Delia to look at Bella, for her to mention the lullaby, for her to show any sign that she didn't understand what was going on; but those lovely eyes never left mine. And then she smiled at me, pulled her phone from her pocket, kissed my cheek, and left the room. I couldn't help but count my blessings.

Ten minutes later, as I sat, still rocking Bella, debating the available courses of action, Delia came back into the room and stuffed her phone back into her pocket. "They're all on their way home; Emmett wanted to go out and search for Rose but I told him he should come here first. I didn't know what you wanted to do."

"That's perfect, I'm glad you told him to come here. I want him here to keep an eye on Bella; the last thing we need is to have the most intimidating of us off in search of someone who could see him coming from miles away. Bad things happen in threes, and I'm just waiting for the dogs."

"You think they'll find us already?"

I sighed, my eyes moving down to look at Bella's tense face, and rolled my shoulders in a shrug. "I don't know, but I'd rather not be unprepared."

I felt the cushion sink a little as Delia sat beside me and rested her head on my shoulder. I turned to kiss her hair and she looked up at me through long, black eyelashes. "Do you think we're ready if they do find us?"

No.

I said, "Yeah, as ready as we're going to be."

* * *

**AN:** Writing from Edward's POV was surprisingly easy. Perhaps I'll remember that. Oh, hey, look! Twice in one day. About the same character total as one of the other chapters!


	11. xi

**EPOV**

"Bella, can you hear me?" Carlisle was leaning foward, shining a little flashlight into her pupils as he kept her eyes open with his other hand. I kept her close to me, but I was no longer rocking back and forth. I held my breath in anticipation; her response, or lack thereof, would be the last proof I needed in order to believe she really was catatonic. We waited forty, fifty, sixty seconds. Bella said nothing. I hugged her stiff body tighter to me and kissed her head. I said, "It's okay, baby, it's okay." But really, it wasn't.

Carlisle set the flashlight on the table and sighed. "Well, Edward. I'm afraid -"

"I know. She's catatonic." I hugged her to my chest a little tighter, wishing more than anything that I could pull her into my body to keep her safe.

"Yes, and that will need to be dealt with. But primarily, we're going to need to see how far along her knees are in their healing. Come on, stretch her out on the island."

I rose from the couch and laid Bella out on the marble island as instructed. I had to lay her on her side, her body was stiff and inflexible, so she could remain in the position she had been in for over an hour now. Carlisle placed his hands on her shoulders and made an unsuccessful attempt at flattening her back. He gestured for me to hold down her hips at an angle as he pressed on the front of her shoulders. Even between the two of us, it was as if we were trying to mold a stone. "We may have to wait until she changes the position herself, Carlisle."

"Normally I would agree with you, but her knees can't continue to heal in that position. We have to at least get her legs straight." Carlisle rubbed at his eyes, putting pressure on the bridge of his nose as he thought about his options. "Alice, I need some of your belts. Emmett, I'm going to have to ask you to help Edward and I."

Five minutes later, Carlisle had Bella on her back, as much as her position would allow, and strapped down to the counter with Alice's leather belts. Uncomfortably, I straddled her stomach and pressed my palms against her shoulders. Carlisle and Emmett were behind me and Carlisle had begun counting down from three. At one, Emmett yanked on Bella's calf so hard I worried we'd nearly pulled her leg out of it's socket. I kept her upper body from lunging forward, using all of my own weight to keep her down. The light strain in my muscles left me hoping I wasn't bruising her or crushing any other bones. The process repeated, each time Emmett tried to straighten her leg with more and more force and the strain in my arms became gradually more and more intense.

"One more, but after this we figure something else out. If I put much more pressure on her, my hands will go through her chest." The imagery was so vivid I had to blink a few times in order to see the reality.

Carlisle counted down once more and Emmett pulled. I heard the popping sound of breaking bone and cartilage; my stomach lurched and I had to swallow back the lump in my throat. Carlisle counted down a final time, and the same noises seemed to echo in my head a thousand times as Emmett re-broke her other kneecap.

---

"Does anyone know where James is?" Carlisle sat on the couch, his legs propped up and a medical book open in his lap.

I waited a few seconds but no one answered. "I've been listening for him but I haven't gotten so much as a vibe; I don't know where he is but he should have been the first one to know about her." I looked down at the woman in my lap, her eyes closed and her small frame still quivering as if she were freezing. "I saw his cell phone sitting on the dresser, so I didn't bother calling him. He's just gone."

There was the faintest whisper of a half-thought creeping around the back of my mind, I looked around the room to identify the voice and when my eyes landed on Jasper there was a sudden moment of understanding between us. Instantly, I turned suspicious eyes to Alice, my lips forming a tight line. "Why haven't you told them anything, Alice?" Jasper put his hand on her knee, his thumb rubbing idly against her jeans. "They need to know."

Alice's eyes shifted nervously from Jasper to Bella, stopping on mine as she took a deep breath. She straightened her shoulders and said, "James is gone because he tried to kill Bella." Her posture went slack as if the confession took a physical toll on her and I sat in silence, stunned and a little too shell shocked to move.

The rage flickered to life in my veins and I leaned my head back on the couch and tried to ignore everything. Becoming incensed wouldn't help the situation right now, and if I were to get that angry the chances were greater that I'd go chasing after him. Right now, Bella needed me. She needed me more than my anger needed vengance.

Images flooded my mind without warning; a feeling like internal floodgates breaking open filled up my skull and I felt my body sway. Distantly, I heard Jasper's voice; his tone calm and even, soothingly murmuring into Alice's ear. Understanding crept over me and I realized the images I was seeing were the images from Alice's vision, I was experiencing what her visions were like. I'd been doing exercises with James to expand my abilities, and it was clear that they were a great success. I focused on what my mind was seeing and tried to piece the story together. I could see Rose's hair against green grass, the pale flesh of her neck and jawline exposed, revealing the scarred skin of her throat. I saw the murky light of the moon shining down into the woods, a fading path in the fog and the smell of the ocean on the breeze. Forks. In the final part of the vision, I could see Rose sitting on the limb of a tree, her eyes fixed directly on me and a snarky grin playing on her full lips.

She'd sent the dogs.

* * *

**AN:** I know some of you are confused, and I can completely understand why. I've been vague and sudden these last few chapters, but there is a purpose! Bella and James are in the middle of a very hard lesson. Just keep reading and it'll all clear up soon! :)


	12. xii

**EPOV**

The first wave arrived a little after five the following Saturday. It had been almost six days since the incident and no one had heard from, or gotten any visions about, James. Jasper and I had sat on the roof with our sniper riffles and silver hollow points. Delia, Esme and Alice had been sent off to find a new safehouse, somewhere far off and more discrete, before things went too downhill at the current house. Thirteen wolves came that day; we went through nearly sixty hollow point bullets and only one got away. The first thirty or forty bullets were before we learned exactly how efficient headshots could be. Emmett took great joy in covering each body with gasoline and watching it catch fire. After the third wave, he didn't seem to take any further joy out of the process. Bella had been given benzodiazepines not long after the re-breaking of her kneecaps, to see if she would respond to them as treatment, and she didn't. By Thursday, things seemed pretty bleak; we'd already had four waves and the girls didn't appear to be having much luck locating a new place. Bella hadn't shown any signs of recovering and Carlisle was beginning to bring up electroconvulsive therapy. The twelve days leading up to this were some of the most miserable days of my life; I'd never felt so worthless. For the life of me, I didn't know what we were supposed to be doing to make things right. Hell, I'd have settled for making things tolerable, livable, dealable. I just wanted to get by.

By the thirteenth day of this war we were trying to manage, we'd survived the first nine waves but I was starting to have major concerns. Each wave got closer to the house, each wave left with fewer dead. Each wave seemed to grow in numbers.

Someone had to make an ammo run, and none of us were sure who would go. Send the doctor, the guard, the snipers? Four men, and no options. We were going to have to weaken our forces to get ammo, that was becoming more and more clear. We didn't even have our emergency backups; with James gone and Bella catatonic, we had nothing special over the wolves. And the worst of my concerns was how hungry I knew we were becoming. We couldn't afford to leave the house to hunt, both because we couldn't leave our location open and because we couldn't afford to be out unprepared. We had fewer options with each day, and the days just kept coming.

The only break we seemed to catch was that James liked to be sure everything Carlisle could possibly need was provided. The basement had been renovated and filled with all kinds of beeping and bleeping medical machines. EKG, MRI, heart monitors, and CT scanner machines. Everything he could need, all stuffed down into the basement. Including the ECT machine for electroconvulsive therapy. As much as I didn't want to pump electricity into Bella, it didn't seem as though I had much of a choice. She wasn't responding to anything else, and I wasn't sure how much longer we could stay here, with or without her help.

It was on Tuesday that I sat up on the roof with Jasper while Carlisle gave Bella the electroconvulsive therapy he had such high hopes for; we were down to our last U-haul box full of ammo, which rounded up to about twenty-one hundred bullets. We'd already gone through two boxes of equal amounts, and I didn't expect these to last more than three more days. I couldn't even keep track of all my kills, I'd lost interest in counting somewhere near five hundred. The wolves kept pouring in, group after group after group. We gunned down one line, only to realize there was another line right behind them. We had blessed days of respite, but they were few; in the eighteen days this had been going on we'd only gotten five days without any attacks. We were fighting them off, and by the skin of our teeth. In order to win this, we needed to make our own advances. But our side seemed sorely outnumbered.

I loaded up my riffle and positioned it on the tripod. I arranged my limbs and torso around the rifle until I was comfortable. My mind wandered to Bella, I couldn't stand the thought of having her shocked, it made me sick to my stomach. I peered through the sight of my rifle and struggled to get my eyes to focus. I pulled back and looked at the sight itself to see if it was covered in fingerprints, turning my gun from one side to the other.

"Something wrong, Edward?" Jasper says.

I can't focus my eyes enough to even inspect the gun. I blink a few times and try again. "I can't get my eyes to focus; it seems I'm a bit farsighted right now."

Jasper turns to look at my face; trying to catch my eyes, I'm sure, to see how hungry I am.

I say, "I'm fine," and reposition myself behind my rifle. I take the sight off and toss it to the floor beside me. It's an hour until sunset, and I can smell them on the air.

It had taken me a while to work out the system I needed. The first few hundred were the hardest; even the monster in me couldn't enjoy killing this much. I had to pull away from it, I had to give myself some distance from reality if I was going to continue to sit up on that roof and pump hollow points into young men I'd never met. The distance I needed I could find in one small, handy little machine. My mp3 player was easily the one inanimate object in this house that I was reasonably certain I would go insane without. I tucked the earbuds into my ears, pushed play, and let my eyes roam down the barrell of my gun.

The first wolf come from between the trees, a roaring, furry beast lunging on all fours. I allowed my eyes to focus on him, four or five hundred yards away, and I could see him more clearly than I had been able to with the sight just the other day. I could see the twisting spirals of brown in his eyes. I could feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins. The wolf I was watching seemed to slow down, I counted off seconds in my head but it seemed impossible that it took him ten seconds to complete two lunges. I pulled the trigger and watched in distant fascination as the bullet punctured his skull.

Sounding far off, Jasper said, "Nice shot."

Three more came out of the trees, and the muscles in my arms moved with machine-like precision; I could feel myself swing upright and pull my sniper rifle up to my shoulder. My eyes moved from target to target, my brain not even registering the pulling of the trigger before I moved onto the next. I counted my rounds; five, six, seven. My eyes landed on movement beyond the trees and I pulled the trigger again; red matter collided with the sides of trees just along the edge. Eight.

I tossed down the gun and held out my hand, saying, "Give me the bolt-action." I scanned the treeline frantically, crouching back down to sit behind my tripod. Jasper handed me the rifle and I set myself up on my tripod as he pushed over a fresh box of shells.

"Save some for me, yeah?"

My eyes flicked to him for a brief second, I said, "You've got as much of a chance to hit them as I do." I loaded the rifle, shifting my eyes from the treeline to the chamber..

"You mean in the ten seconds it took you to plow them down? Not likely, I didn't even lift my gun." He leaned down to peer through his sight. "It doesn't seem like any more are coming."

I looked up to the treeline, my gun comfortably nestled against my shoulder. I said, "They're waiting; there's at least ten of them to the right, fifteen or more to the left." I glanced over at him, then said, "Take the left if you feel jipped."

He looked through his sight and said, "Movement!"

I went through three more boxes before they stopped coming; the yard was littered with half-shifted bodies. I tugged out the earbuds and dropped everything to the roof. "I'm going back inside to check on Bella. I'll send Emmett up."

* * *

AN: Edward is really helping me work through this writers block :)


	13. xiii

**AN: **the next few chapters will explain most of what anyone may have been confused about :) just give it time to develop! also, forgive any typos involving the letter "y" - my keyboard is protesting.

* * *

**JamesPOV**

Daniel swung and his right fist connected with my jaw. I could taste the blood seeping out of my gums. He followed up with a left punch to break a few of my ribs. The pain was encouraging, I could feel the smokey prowl of the beast inside of me. With my hands locked behind my back with titanium cuffs, and a clever chain and hook that kept me half a foot off the floor, I had little choice but to allow Daniel to continue to throw his punches.

He knocked me in the face again and I could feel the skin around my left eye swell. My shoulders were beginning to give out and the slow dislocation was painful enough that I struggled to catch my breath. Daniel's fists connected with my gut, my ribs, my face. My tolerance to pain inching closer to the breaking point. My mouth filled with blood, and no matter how much I spit out, I knew I swallowed more. The taste of my own blood was already making me sick.

It felt like he'd shattered my entire torso as Daniel continued to pummell me. Punch after punch, one after the other, he broke bone and knocked out teeth. The blinding pain was reaching levels that had me reeling. My entire body felt as if it was about to combust with all the tension in my rigid muscles. I shut my eyes tightly and strained my arms to snap the cuffs; the brittle agony in my chest building up pressure. With the muscles around my shoulders starting to tear, I allowed myself a long holler, which rapidly grew into a burning roar as I expelled it. Almost at once, the chain snapped on the cuffs and my feet hit the cement with a wet thud.

I peeled my eyes open and met Daniel's; he shrank back and I straightened myself from the crouch I'd landed in. I exhaled and watched as the black smoke from my lungs curled and crawled over the distance between us. It looped around his neck and I controlled the rate at which the decay spread down over his chest. I lifted my hand, calling it back to me, and Daniel smiled triumphantly as the smoke circled my fingers. Still drenched in my own blood and spitting it out onto the floor, I grabbed my keys and jacket and left Daniel's beachhouse. The bones in my chest shifted and my muscles and ligaments began stitching themselves together as I sprinted up the stairs and out to my truck.

--

**EdwardPOV**

I buttoned up my black shirt as I descended the stairs into the basement. I glanced over at Carlisle, sitting with books in his lap and opened all over his desk, and walked over to Bella. The instant my eyes landed on her I wanted to turn around and threaten to burn Carlisle alive myself. She was strapped to a gurney, the little white half-button up shirt she had been wearing unbuttoned and sprawled open, wrinkled and sticky with her sweat. Her skin was a pasty grey color and clammy to the touch, and if I didn't know better I'd have wondered if he had killed her. My hands moved without direction, unbuckling the straps and yanking the wires and tubes right off of and out of her skin. I heard Carlisle shift in his chair, the scratching of rolling wheels on cement, and I lifted Bella's limp body into my arms. I knew it was the anasthesia that left her so languid in my grasp, but I couldn't entirely ignore the similarities between her condition as it was and what she would feel like dead. I stormed out of the basement without a word spoken to my father; the anger that stirred in my blood was too much for me to control. I took her into the master bathroom and held her against me with one arm as I started running hot water into the jacuzzi. Resting on the edge, I shifted her so that I could lift her shirt up over her head and throw it to the floor. Disrobing her used to be the hardest part, the slow progression of revealed skin used to drive me insane; but I'd grown used to suppressing the memory of her skin, and this time was less of a concern than any day prior. I kissed her face and held her for a moment, allowing myself to breathe in the smell of her skin and feel the slow rythm of her breathing just to remind myself she was alive. Pulling myself away from her, the scent of her blood making me a little dizzy, I finished disrobing her and climbed into the jacuzzi with her. I hated the way boxers felt when they were wet, but that too was something I'd grown used to over the last two weeks.

Gently, I shampooed and conditioned her hair and scrubbed her clean. Because the water was still so warm, I allowed myself to relax into the jacuzzi and it's jets. Bella stayed where I felt most comfortable to have her, right in my lap, and I found myself to be mulling over the concerns of the day once again.

"I'm sorry I let Carlisle do this to you," I said, my thumb idly rubbing at her upper arm. "I shouldn't have let him. I was desperate to get you back, I don't know what to do here." I let my nose rest in the crook of her neck, the warm aroma of her blood soothing my concerns. She smelled like a starving man's last supper; I felt like the starving fool with his mouth sewn shut sniffing as if it would nourish him. "I miss the way you felt against me; I find myself thinking about the way you move, the way you taste." I drew in another famished breath, my mouth salivating at her scent. I could feel the tension in my mouth as my canines pushed out farther. "You smell incredible," I purred against her neck. I pressed my lips against the back of her shoulder.

Carlisle rapped gently on the door to the bathroom. Snapping out of my trance, I looked around the room quickly to re-acquaint myself with the current reality. The anger rushed back happily and I didn't resist the urge to respond in something more ferile and animalistic than I had ever felt the need before. I'm not certain he heard me say "get the fuck out" but he understood my point well enough. Having grown tired of the lukewarm water, I lifted us both out and flipped the drain switch. Toweling her and myself off, I wrapped her in a thick cotton robe and changed into a fresh pair of pajama pants myself. I didn't bother looking at the clock as I entered the bedroom, instead deciding that I would remain down here in the house until I came up with a solution to at least one of our dilemmas. I curled into the LazyBoy recliner and tucked Bella into the bend of my shoulder and the corner of the seat. Resting her head on my chest, I stared out through the panes of glass at the darkness surrounding the house.

--

**JamesPOV**

The last few miles were the worst; every mile marker seemed to drag on for hours. The music playing on the stereo did little to distract me from the exit signs and the slow vehicles littering my path. I loathed that I needed to be caged in the limited truck, it seemed a cruel complication. I felt like the point of a moral lesson; with the gods sitting high up in their clouds, looking down at me and thinking, "my, what a foolish beast to keep trudging on." The desire to leave my cargo on the side of the road was overwhelming on more than a few occassions.

I turned the wheel sharply and sped up the driveway at nearly seventy miles an hour. My nerves were on edge, nearly to the point of shaking, and I had stopped breathing in an effort to keep from hyperventilating.

I couldn't hear her.

I tried to tell myself that it'd been over two weeks, that she'd had time to perfect blocking me; but I knew too well how unlikely it was for that to be the case. Something was wrong; I could have made an educated guess but the thought of finding out made my stomach lurch. I'd face it when I had to, when I arrived. I knew Jasper was going to bang on the roof of the house to warn Edward a mere milisecond before I heard it. In the same second, I could hear the mess of rage that filled Emmett's mind in wordless rolls of emotion. I stepped on the gas a little harder.

With my new truck haph-hazardly parked outside of the house, it's bed full of crates of ammo and blood donation bags, I swung open the door and tossed my keys onto the counter. I tugged on the front of my jacket to get rid of any wrinkles and ran a hand through my few inches of hair. I couldn't help feeling like I needed to at least make an attempt to look appropriate. I caught the scent of her blueberry shampoo and followed it down the hallway and to the closed door of the masters bedroom. I turned the knob and pushed open the door; dropping my bag to the side, and turning to find Bella, I wind up looking straight down the barrel of Edward's handgun, a few feet away and aimed directly between my eyes. Beyond that, a wet, shirtless Edward had my Iz sittin in his lap, wrapped in what appeared to be only a bathrobe.

And she was unconscious.

I felt the beast rise to life in my veins.


	14. xiv

**AN:** I am just going to preface this whole chapter by saying that if you google the word "umbra" you will probably come up with a definition similar to "shadow" or "shade" or some such thing. The dictionary I used offered alternate defintions, one of them being the one I use when I use the word in this chapter.

**umbra** x noun; invariable or characteristic accompaniment or companion of a person or thing.

**EPOV**

I locked my elbows into place, my arms stretched out to either side of Bella's head. I kept my gun levelled squarely between his eyes and swallowed the sick lump in my throat. In the time I'd spent with James, I thought I knew him pretty well. James was an intimidating guy; tall, strong-jawed, rugged, quiet. They used to say "watch out for the quiet ones," I don't know if they still do; they should. I wondered briefly if he had been one of the reasons for such a saying. He looked a little eerie standing there with such self-assurance as the blood dried on his shirt and his black eye healed as I watched.

There was a new vibe from him, at first it reminded me of the tension all around him in the weeks leading up to his departure; but then I felt it, the cold aftertaste of control. Whatever it was he'd been struggling with before, he'd mastered it now.

Anger and fear blended together in the back of my mind and I knew I should have bowed out before I pushed the situation too far. A blackness was creeping into his green eyes and I found it hard to focus on anything else. It was a strain to keep my mental block up, let alone remember the facts of the situation. Telepathically, I felt a ripple in the air between us, a minor distortion in the energy that rolled off of him. By the time I could catch the primal, territorial tone of his thoughts, I realized my first mistake had been not pulling the trigger as soon as I'd gotten a clear shot.

--

**JPOV**

I reigned myself in, harnessing my jealous fury and giving myself a good ten seconds before I shifted my attention back to Edward. Edward, with my Iz mostly naked and unconscious in his lap. I counted backwards from fifteen and regulated my breathing. I tried not to focus on the blueberry shampoo smell that perforated the entire room.

I said, "Why is she anesthetized, Edward?"

"Electroconvulsive therapy."

I allowed my mind to race through the endless bits of information I had collected over the years and was only able to find a handful of reasons that electroconvulsive therapy would be needed; mania and depression were the two leading problems that could be treated with ECT, and while both were possible - it hardly seemed well thought-out if they were already treating Bella for either. Considering she'd have had to develop the conditions upon my departure, it seemed unlikely that she'd have already been diagnosed as depressed, let alone moved so quickly through the trial medication process to need ECT. Which left catatonia. The pieces were beginning to fall into place.

I stepped forward, never moving my eyes off of Bella. The gun twitched in Edward's hands. I said, "Give her over," and held out my arms. I watched the indecision flicker across his face as he calculated his odds. And then he surprised me.

"No," he said.

--

**EPOV**

My nerves were on edge; every instinct I had told me to back down, except one. I was so fiercely protective of Bella that it trumped all of my logic and reason, it trampled over my own self-preservation instincts. James dropped his arms and stuffed his hands into his loose trousers. He'd slimmed down while he was gone. I kept the gun in place, counting my small blessings that my arms wouldn't get tired. James' expression changed as he studied me; after a moment he shrugged calmly and leaned against the dresser beside him. I lowered the gun to the arm of the chair, pointing it at him with one hand instead of both. With my free hand, I adjusted Bella's position against me and got comfortable again.

"She doesn't need electroconvulsive therapy, Edward."

Feeling indignant, I snorted in disbelief of his statement. "You wouldn't know what she needs, James. You haven't been here, you don't know the situation."

My indignance was mirrored back at me in his expression and I noticed the stiffening of his spine. Clearing his throat, he seemed to ponder his response. Once his green-grey eyes flicked up to meet mine, I knew the anger had won out over his control. "I know how to take care of my umbra, Edward!" His tone said it all, the roar of his anger grated against his vocal chords; he was the alpha male, and he was asserting his fucking dominance.

--

**BPOV**

I was sitting in the middle of a stone road, surrounded by fog and yellow and orange-leaved oak trees. Equally bright leaves littered the span of the road, lining a narrow path up and down the length of the road. My knees were pulled up to my chest and I rested my chin in the dip between them. I was waiting for someone, but his face escaped my memory each time I attempted to recall it. There was no breeze, and no apparent light source but the fog had the glow of an early morning in the hills of California. My hair fell into my face, smooth curls slipping to shield my eyes. I felt calm, under control; all reality beyond my road fell into a far-away tragedy of another life.

And then the rain began. At first, each droplet was distinct and loud but as they fell, more came. Soon enough, the streams of rain hitting the stones and trees above me were so deafening that my head was starting to hurt. Over the pelting rain, I heard someone whispering; I couldn't make out the words so I stood up and walked a few feet forward. I listened harder and heard the voice again, but it seemed no closer than it had before. I jogged a few yards ahead and waited, focusing all of my hearing on the voice and desperately trying to block out the rain.

It seemed that no matter how far I ran down the road, the voice never got any closer or any farther away. I ran faster, my legs pumping and my bare feet hitting the stones with wet slaps. I ran until my body felt like air, until it seemed as if my feet never needed to hit the ground. And then I ran harder, faster; I listened carefully for the distant whisper of reality. And when I heard it, clearly for the first time, the entire world around me crumbled.

"Bella."

--

**EPOV**

James was growing impatient with me. He said, "You are not her caretaker, Edward; I am. Give me my wife," and as he spoke, he strode quite confidently over to me. I moved swiftly, lifting Bella and myself from the chair and holding her in my left arm so I could re-level the gun between his eyes. He continued covering the remaining distance between us. When I didn't lower my weapon, he pressed his forehead against the barrell of my gun and said, his voice low, "You still wouldn't be able to hit me."

I watched as he leaned down slightly to look at Bella's peaceful face. Her eyelids twitched; I blinked and looked again, but nothing happened. James lifted a hand and softly rubbed a thumb over her cheekbone and down her jawline. I almost thought I saw movement behind her eyelids again. He whispered her name so quietly I wasn't sure he even knew he'd spoken, and in the same instant, Bella's entire body spasmed as she gasped and opened her eyes.


	15. xv

**AN:** I know this one is shorter than the last few, but it's BPOV and I thought you all may want that so I am posting it now. I'm really pumping these out lately thanks to Edward

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**BPOV**

My eyes stung immediately and I snapped them shut again; oxygen burned my lungs and there was an uncomfortable ringing in my ears. When the brightness searing through my eyelids eased, I warily peeked one eye open and discovered quite a few surprising facts. I was freshly bathed, in a bathrobe that was hanging open under my bent knees, cradled in a shirtless Edward's arm. His free arm was pointing a gun directly at a blood-covered James.

I said, "What the fuck is going on, please?" and wiggled until Edward released me and I stood on my feet; only to sway with a sudden, overwhelming dizziness. James' long fingers wrapped around my shoulders and I allowed myself to relax into his grip; he brought me to his chest and soothed all the right stress spots, his hands moving over my neck and shoulders with all the expertise of the long-standing lover that he was.

"You've been catatonic for almost nineteen days," Edward said, "ever since James left you. Which, if Alice tells it correctly, was promptly after attempting to kill you." He was being snide, and if I'd had the energy, I may have turned around and knocked him in the teeth. As it went, I didn't. I was surprised, however, when Edward's comment went entirely without acknowledgement from James.

I said, "Why do I feel so groggy?"

"They had you anesthatized for electroshock therapy," James said in mock helpfulness, the underlying message in his tone an easy read. _They filled you with drugs so that I couldn't hear you._ I pushed myself off his chest; I wasn't going to get in the middle of their bickering. It hadn't come to blows just yet, or triggers, but I knew the way they instigated each other.

"Carlisle was only doing what he thought would help. We used the knowledge we had to work with. Frankly," Edward said, his voice dripping with a vicious anger I wasn't sure I'd ever seen before, "not all of us _know everything._"

From behind me, James said, "I see everone is still living in fear of what they do not understand, but that's hardly a surprise." I realized that I was in the middle of their bickering, afterall; even though I refused to contribute to the arguement.

The anger rolling off Edward was like a cool breeze to my warm skin. "The only fear I've been dealing with the last few days is how to keep _your wife_ alive after _you left her destroyed and almost murdered._"

Suddenly the space between them felt very claustrophic. I wasn't sure exactly what to do; stuck between them, I didn't know whether to quietly leave or try to break it up. My instincts told me neither, my instincts preferred that I discretely sink into the floorboards and not come out until it was all over.

Something shifted behind me, only, it seemed to be _inside_ of me. I knew the satiny feel of my beast as it rose in my blood; the smokey taste of life in the back of my throat, the distinct feeling of feathers being wrapped delicately around my spinal column. Inside the marrow of my bones, smoke. But this was different, this wasn't my beast. This was a different beast entirely; not tamed and taught to be civilized; nothing at all like that, in fact. The beast I could feel stirring moved slowly and rapidly at the same time, it felt as if there were two beasts forced to share the same body. This beast knew no limits, had no boundaries; this beast was wild, and would forever be wild, but it was balanced. Simple, and complicated; violent, and gentle; a giver, and a taker.

"I don't have to answer to you," James said, and it was the first time I had ever seen him back down to Edward. I looked down at the gun in Edward's hand, pointed slightly upward to be aimed so strictly on James, and still wondered what exactly had James backing down so readily. He certainly couldn't be afraid of a bullet, he could telekenetically change it's course if he chose to.

Edward didn't miss a beat; he said, "It's not me you need to answer to, it's your wife!" I thought, _why did you have to bring me into this!_ "And you haven't exactly been pouring over with your remorse, James." He paused, and plain to see on his face, a new thought occurred to him. In Edward's mind, he'd just won the arguement. "Are you even repentant?" He said, the expression on his face genuinely perplexed.

Some things occurred to me, then.

Edward was still in love with me, and there was a different aspect to him since the last I'd seen him. Beneath his surface something lurked, the same way something lurked beneath both James and myself. Recent events had awoken something in Edward.

And whatever violent power James had had inside of him before he left, whatever he had used to try to kill me, he'd mastered it. And that either made him safer to be around, or deadlier; and at the moment, I wasn't sure which it was.

"What I have to say to Bella does not need an audience," James said. "I think you've prevented us from talking long enough; I want you to leave."


	16. xvi

**  
AN:** You are all going to laugh at the song i chose for part of this ;) at least, i giggled. i'm going to try really hard to make full use of my "skill" to hopefully express why i chose that song. the lyrics fit so well with what i wanted to portray. Also, this one is longer! yay!

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**BPOV**

Edward attempted to meet my eyes, his quiet way of asking me if he should stay, but I ignored him. He was a grown man, and I wasn't sure where I wanted to be right then. Sure, it would be nice to get an explanation from James, but the truth of the matter was that I'd only been upset for a few hours. I knew I should be angry, should be disappointed and rejected, but I wasn't. I'd only even been upset for a few hours, after that I wasn't even conscious; could I really hold him accountable for pain I never experienced? My emotions were a mess and I hadn't even had time to untangle them, let alone figure out where I stood on the issue. Angry? Bitter, spiteful, hurt? None of the above?

Edward, having been left to make the choice himself, said, "Right now, we need to discuss something that pertains to all of us."

James' beast rubbed against my spine. I shivered. I could almost feel James' scowl. I waved a hand at Edward to let him know I was listening and he could continue.

"Rose escaped while you were catatonic and gave the wolves our location. We've been under attack for two weeks and we're nearly out of ammunition," he said. "Our biggest problem, though, is how long it's been since the four of us have fed. It was just too dangerous to try to hunt; we only had four people and moving anyone from their spot seemed to be too much of a risk."

James said, "Your point, Edward?" Despite his somber tone, I could hear the faintest trace of a laugh in his voice.

Indignant, Edward replied, "My point is that if these problems aren't solved, we'll all be dead."

My head was still spinning. Somehow this didn't seem like something that should be happening.

James laughed outright, then; a joyous burst of riotous chuckles. "Edward, what do we have to be afraid of these wolves for? Have you seen what I can do? What Bella can do?" He gestured broadly at me, standing in front of him, and Edward's eyes studied my face. "What have the wolves against us?" He turned his attention to the room, searching for an open seat and found one a few inches from his leg. He sat down, resting one palm comfortably on his belly as if he'd had a good meal. "You're still problem-solving as if you're on your own. Leave the wolves to me; and go check the bed of my truck. I believe the rest of your concerns have already been addressed."

---

**EPOV**

I studied Bella closely; her eyes seemed heavy and she seemed to be struggling just to remain standing. I moved from my spot against the wall and stood before her, my distance respectable but easily closed if necessary. I leaned down slightly to catch her attention, saying to James, "Perhaps you're right," but she turned her face to the side so she didn't have to look at me.

I stopped her face from turning away and the moment my fingertips touched her skin, I realized I'd gotten too close. I could smell her blood so strongly I thought I'd never breathe in another scent again. She was exquisite, and she was mere inches from me. I was a starving fool leaning over a five-star meal, thinking I'd be able to help her. I could feel my gums stretching in my mouth.

Without warning, I was hurtling, backwards, through the air. In front of me, suddenly between Bella and I, stood James, tall and vicious, shielding her from _me_. The irony did not escape me as my back crashed into the nearest wall and I felt my sternum snap. "I think it's time you go check the back of my truck," James said, his voice heated and threatening. I stood upright and dusted myself off.

Ignoring the stabbing pain in my chest, I said, "I think it's time you feed your wife, or are you trying to kill her agian?" Without waiting for an answer, I stormed out of the room and down the staircase into the basement.

--

**NarratorPOV**

baby one more time x britney spears

No sooner had Edward slammed the door closed, James was holding her up and she could smell the deep, musky scent of him. He lifted her by her hips and placed her gently in the plush recliner, moving himself to kneel between her legs. He said nothing, keeping his eyes fixed on the arm of the chair, but his neck was stretched in, what could only be, an inviting way. Bella sat motionless for a moment, knowing full well exactly what he was doing and not quite sure how to feel about it. Was it remorse that had him so submissive? She could assume so; in fact, it was likely that she would, but some distant, alien part of her said, _what if it's all a trick?_

The chances were good that the trick would backfire on him; but "unlikely" wasn't exactly a guarantee. Things could always go awry. There really was only one way for her to know the absolute truth, clear of all bias or careful phrasing. And he was offering it to her, without any deals or manipulation at all. There was no logical benefit to it, except to perhaps stun her first.

But then, he'd never submitted to her this way before.

She lifted her hand to touch his face and her entire arm began to shake uncontrollably. She was feeling nauseas and achey. Her mouth felt parched, her lips were cracking and her tongue felt like a ball of wool; she dragged her tongue quickly across her lips and leaned down, hovering the points of her teeth over his skin for a millisecond. The room blurred and spun around her with her motions.

The first few drops felt like acid as the rolled down her dehydrating throat. It wasn't long, however, before the thick, robust taste of him had her crawling onto the floor to press her chest against his and sink in a little deeper. All across her body, she could feel her skin tightening and buzzing with new vitality. A rush of awareness filled her as her body became less and less stiff and awkward.

Thinking clearly for the first time since her awakening, Bella began focusing on his departure. She had to call out the memories if she wanted an answer. And then it happened; she and James had discussed it's looming occurrance for years, and it chose this exchange to reveal itself.

The bedroom and the recliner and the smell of his skin were far off, miles out of reach and speeding away with every drop her disconnected body continued to swallow. She could fell the swish of loose jeans between her legs, could smell the stale air of a moldy basement, could see the yellow light from a swinging bulb.

She was inside of his memory, able to walk the steps he'd walked and experience everything as he had. Their blood bond was sealed; she wondered why it'd happened at this moment, this foreign, awkward, time between them. But she was too far ahead, too late to see the moment he'd left. Could she navigate through them? From the left came a punch to the jaw and she could feel the staggering step he had taken. A forceful kick to the base of his spine sent him to his knees and she could feel the nasty way the discs of his spine scraped against each other.

She had placed the feeling, borrowed as it was, immediately. That same vibrating hum along her spine, the strength and balance of it. It consumed his bones and moved swiftly through his veins; almost instantly he was rendered powerless to himself, and she with him. The hunger ate him alive, it moved through him and distorted his thoughts. Without thinking, he turned around and telekinetically shoved Daniel into the far wall. She hadn't even realized his spine had healed itself until he bolted across the distance, his instincts alive and claiming control. Overwhelmed with the rush of brutality and unbriddled fury, Bella was lost in the struggle to follow the events. His hand felt like it was burning cold and once she pushed through the animalistic subconscious that had taken over, she realized the pain in his hand was fading and she watched as Daniel slid, limply, to the floor.

Daniel was dead, right there at James' feet. His best friend, and he hadn't had a fighting chance. Neither of them had.

She wasn't sure she would ever get the image of Daniel, grey and cadaverous, out of her head.

The waves of misery that washed over James left her feeling devastated and horrified, much like he had been; the desperation and self-hatred only doubled as he realized that it could have been Bella lying there on the floor.

It almost had been.

She swallowed down the hollow relief she felt at the same realization. It hadn't been her, and she now understood how narrowly it had been avoided; but it had been someone, and of all people, it was the friend James appreciated the most.

Efficiently, she could feel James supressing the beast, smothering it out and banishing it from his mind. She hadn't even moved passed the silent shock, yet, and he'd already moved onto problem solving.

Imagine if someone else had this power, someone with less temperance than he had, she thought. The idea terrified her.

She pulled back from his throat with a gasp, leaving behind two raw and leaking puncture holes.


End file.
